


Breaking New Ground

by bitemyshinyredtender



Category: Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, Thomas the Tank Engine - All Media Types
Genre: A bit of laughs, Multi, Rating may change?? Maybe??, Somehow this story is still going, The trilogy literally no one asked for, a bit of angst, will update tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-09-13 03:10:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16884531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitemyshinyredtender/pseuds/bitemyshinyredtender
Summary: Sequel to "The Whole Nine Yards" and "The Tenth Yard"It's been six months since the events of TTY, and plenty can, and did, happen in six months. Just when things seem to be looking up, everything can come crashing down. Now more than ever, decisions made will make or break relationships, careers, and possibly someone's life.Rating may change.May 17 Edit: Next chapter in the works now!





	1. Chapter 1

“This is the same coffee place we went to on our trip, isn’t it?” Edward asked, looking around and taking in the familiar surroundings. Vines and potted plants decorated the rich red walls, a faded sign that read ‘The Coffee Pot’ hung outside above the large window they were sitting beside.

Nodding, Henry handed Edward his coffee as he sat down. “It’s definitely a favorite of mine, I’m on a first name basis with the owner. Which… sounds a little pathetic now that I’m saying it out loud.” Henry looked around shyly as Edward laughed.

“Nonsense, that’s not pathetic. But speaking of pathetic, did I tell you that James dropped out of college?”

Henry’s attention snapped back to Edward, his jaw dropping. “You’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious.” Edward gave an annoyed huff, “He took one math class and called it quits. I think he forgot that not all classes would be related to his major.”

“What’s he doing now?”

“He got a job at an auto repair shop a couple blocks away from our new place. It pays decent money, so I won’t have to work for a while once baby is here.”

Henry leaned back in his chair, “Wow, you’ve had a lot going on in your life then. I can’t believe I’ve missed this.”

Edward took a deep breath, “There’s more.”

“Spill.”

“I adopted another kid.”

Henry was floored once again by the news. “But, how did you-...?”

Edward chuckled, “To make a long story short, we were running out of time, so it was a ‘now or never’ sort of decision. The only reason I’m still working another two months is to try and make up some of the money Thomas put us back.” A soft smile spread across Edward’s face, “He’s worth it though. He’ll be officially living with us in a few days, and I can’t wait.”

Henry took in Edward’s blissful expression, “I can tell. You such a paternal guy, you’re going to be a great dad.”

Edward looked down at his coffee and smiled wistfully, “Thanks, that means a lot to hear.”

“You better send me pictures of the kids every day or I’m going to come back and egg your house.”

“I still can’t believe I have to send you pictures, you’ve been here for only six months but it feels like an eternity.”

“I can’t believe I haven’t seen you and James in six months. My life has been too quiet,” Henry smirked.

“Come visit, please,” Edward said softly, “we miss you, and you should see the new place James and I just bought. It’ll take forever to pay it off, but it’s a place we’ll be for a long time, so it’s worth every penny.” Edward pulled a small card out of his bag, handing it to Henry. “Here, we’re having a housewarming party in about a week, once we've finished moving in- that’s assuming we can move everything in by that time- but we’ll at least have enough done to have everybody over.”

Henry read the card, struggling to decipher James’ scrawled handwriting. “Of course I’ll be there, I’m excited to see everyone again!”

Edward’s smile faltered.

“Oh no, what now?” Henry giggled.

Edward shook his head, “No, i-it’s nothing, just… Gordon will be there too, are you okay with that?”

“Oh.”

“...You’re not mad that I’m still friends with him, are you?”

Henry laughed lightly, “Not at all, why would I be mad?”

“Well, I mean,” Edward gestured vaguely, “after everything that happened between you two…”

Henry held up his hand to silence Edward, “No. What happened with us shouldn’t affect his relationships with anyone else.”

Edward winced, “Speaking of relationships…”

Henry cocked an eyebrow.

“Gordon is-”

“Henry!” Edward was interrupted by a short older man excitedly making his way over to their table. “Back again, I see?”

Henry laughed, “I can’t seem to stay away, can I?”

The man chuckled warmly, “Well, then you’ll be keeping me in business, won’t you?”

Edward cleared his throat awkwardly.

“R-right,” Henry stammered, “this is Edward, we’ve been friends for almost a decade now. Edward, this is Glynn, he owns this place.”

“Number one coffee shop this side of the ocean!” Glynn held out his hand, which Edward shook politely.

Henry rolled his eyes, “Unofficially, of course.”

“Of course,” Glynn chuckled, “but no one bothers to ask when I tell them.”

-

After working as a museum tour guide for nearly five months, Henry thought he’d have the whole place memorized by now. But to his dismay, he still managed to slip up at least a few times each day, hoping guests would laugh along when he joked about being new. They never did.

Breaks were the only time all day he got to sit down and take the forced smile off his face. He loved this job, and he knew it would get better with time, but for the moment it caused him a sufficient amount of stress. Thankfully, his coworkers turned out to be wonderful. It reminded Henry of working at the club back in Sodor.

He wondered if Gordon still worked there as a bouncer.

Shaking the thought out of his head, Henry took a swig from his water bottle and sighed.

“Oh, hello Henry. Taking a break, I see?”

A voice behind him made Henry jump and whip around to see who it was, and was relieved to see Hiro, his boss.

Hiro chuckled, “I am sorry, I did not mean to startle you. I am just here for some coffee.”

“Oh, you didn’t startle me,” Henry stuttered nervously. He always became nervous around Hiro, and he wasn’t sure if it was because Hiro was his boss, or because of the way his kind eyes and soft voice made him feel so…

“I didn’t startle you?” Hiro smiled knowingly, making Henry blush. “Then I suppose you just decide to jump when anybody enters a room?”

Henry was sure his face was red by now. Unsure of what to say, he stayed quiet and took another sip of his water.

Hiro chuckled warmly again, “I hear you are having some trouble with the tours?”

Henry nearly choked on his water, “Oh, no sir, I-I’m learning everything just fine, it’s j-just-”

Hiro leaned against the counter, watching Henry with an amused but still kind expression. “If you are having trouble it’s okay, Henry. This is a big museum. It took me years to get used to everything, and you have not been here long. If you ever need any help, I am here for you.”

With a deep breath, Henry smiled gratefully. “Thank you,” he said softly, “I may need a little help.”

“Perhaps we could meet up for coffee sometime? You could ask me any questions you may have, and I could get to know my newest employee a little better.”

Henry’s heart stopped. Was… was he being asked out? No, he couldn’t possibly- Hiro was a kind man, he couldn’t mean anything by it.

Could he?

Hesitantly, Henry nodded, “That sounds good to me.”

“Wonderful,” Hiro smiled. “I am free next weekend, if you would like to sit down and talk then. You have my email, let me know what times work for you.”

Henry nodded as he watched Hiro leave with a polite wave.

He had a lot to think about.


	2. Chapter 2

Edward set down the last box with a strained grunt. Despite James urging him not to do any of the heavy lifting, Edward managed to sneak off and carry in a few boxes anyway. Even at seven months pregnant, he hated the idea of just sitting around doing nothing. He wanted to do something. He wanted to be useful. His baby was strong, they could take it.

Looking around, Edward took in the sight of all the boxes piled up against the wall of the nursery. Every room in the house looked the same, boxes and tubs of stuff piled high, waiting to be unpacked and sorted. As overwhelming as it was, Edward felt a rush of excitement at the idea. He couldn’t believe it, he had a _house_ , he had _children_ , he had… sort of a husband?

 _Soon_ , he thought. _A little out of order, but it’ll happen soon_.

Just then, Edward felt James’ arms wrap around him, resting gently on top of his developing baby bump. “Darling, I believe I told you not to touch another box, why must you disobey me,” James cooed.

Edward rolled his eyes, “It wasn’t that heavy, really…”

“But what if you squish baby?!”

“James,” Edward laughed, “I will not ‘squish baby’ just by carrying stuff. That’s not how any of this works. If anything, the exercise is probably good for me. Better than lazing around doing nothing...”

Pressing a kiss to Edward’s temple, James chuckled and rubbed small circles on Edward’s tummy. “I know,” he said, “I just want you to be careful.”

Edward was too focused on looking around the room to pay attention to what James was saying.

“...You okay?” James asked.

Startled out of his thoughts, Edward nodded, “Yes, I was just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?” James asked, lovingly playing with Edward’s hair.

Edward sighed, “Just… I can’t believe this is my life now. I didn’t think I’d have all of this until I was well into my thirties, if I even was lucky enough to have it at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this,” Edward gestured vaguely around the room. “This house, this family… this _life_. I’ve been dreaming of a life like this since I can remember, but I never thought it would come to me this early.” Edward laughed, “I thought I’d be an old man by the time I had all of this.”

“Bold of you to assume you aren’t already an old man,” James teased. He yelped when Edward swatted his arm in response.

James took a deep breath, fiddling with the object he had hidden in his pocket. _This is it..._ he thought.

Edward continued, “I guess I’m just a little sappy about all of this. Hormones, you know?”

“Not sappy at all,” James said, moving so he stood in front of Edward. One hand still in his pocket, he reached out and grasped one of Edward’s hands. “I’m just as excited about all of this as you are. Everything is… perfect.”

Edward smiled, “It really is.”

With a gulp, James opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by a cry from Edward, who wrapped his arms around his stomach and doubled over in pain.

“Edward, what’s wrong?!” James crouched in front of him, nervously eyeing the way Edward clung his stomach. That wasn’t a good sign.

Edward’s breaths were ragged, his voice weak as he spoke, “Pain… why am I in… so much pain…?”

“Are you-” Another pained cry from Edward. James continued, “Are you going into labor?”

“I shouldn’t be!” Edward started to panic. He wasn’t due for at least another month, something was very wrong. “I think… I think we need to go to the hospital.”

-

Henry had just collapsed face-first onto his bed when his phone rang. He groaned, hoping it wasn’t a work related call. Not bothering to sit up, he blindly felt around for his phone and answered with a tired ‘hello’, not caring who it was.

_”You sound like shit.”_

James voice was not one Henry expected to hear on the other end. He sat up, clearing his throat. “Long day. Is that all you called for? To tell me I sound like-”

_“Hate to cut you off, but I’ve got a bunch of calls to make. Point is, Edward’s in labor.”_

Henry’s heart sunk. “But he’s not-”

_“Due for another month and a half, we know.”_

Henry paused for a second, taking in the information. The thought of something awful potentially happening to his best friend sent a flash of worry through him. He didn’t even want to think about what could happen to the baby. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, which’ll be… in four hours…”

_”That’s fine, I’ll fill you in on the juicy bits when you get here.”_

Henry could hear Edward yelling at James for using the term ‘juicy bits’ and laughed. “Give my love to Edward, would you?”

_”I only promise to try.”_

The line went dead before Henry could say anything else. Giggling to himself, he hurriedly began to pack.

-

Nearly four and a half hours later, Henry rushed through the hospital doors. He had tried calling James and Edward when he arrived, but got no answer. He rushed up to the nearest nursing station. “Excuse me?”

A tired looking nurse smiled at him, “How can I help?”

“I’m here to see a friend, his name is Edward Stewart, which room is-?”

The nurse’s face lit up as she recognized the name, “Ah, you’re here for the queer couple. They’re in room 242, just down the hall and around the corner, you can’t miss it.”

Bristling at the way the nurse used the word ‘queer’, Henry thanked her and walked in the direction she pointed him.

As soon as Henry rounded the corner, he came to a screeching halt. The nurse was right, he couldn’t have missed room 242. Mostly because it was the first room on the right, but also due to the fact that Gordon was standing right outside the door. He was talking on the phone, and he somehow hadn’t noticed Henry standing a few feet away. _Good_ , Henry thought, _I still have time to turn around and…_

 _What am I, fourteen?!_ , Henry scolded himself, _I can do this, I can face him. It’s been long enough. Things will only be weird if you make them weird… or if Gordon makes them weird… which he probably won’t, he’s mature enough to-_ Henry shook his head, _Focus! You’re here to see Edward, not freak out over your ex._ With a deep breath, Henry walked forward, hoping to simply walk past Gordon without having to do more than give him a wave of acknowledgement.

However, Gordon ended his call and pocketed his phone just as Henry approached him. _Wonderful_ , Henry thought sarcastically.

Gordon sighed and looked up, only to do a double take when he saw who it was. “Henry…” he said quietly, saying it more to himself than in greeting. The stunned look on his face filled Henry with an almost painful feeling. Gordon must be just as surprised to see him as he was to see Gordon.

Smiling awkwardly, Henry gave Gordon a polite wave. “Hi… I’m very late, aren’t I?”

It took a moment for Gordon to respond, his voice wavering. “Not at all, you haven’t missed much.”

“Good, I was scared I’d miss… everything…” Henry trailed off, unsure of what to say next. Not wanting to keep eye contact with Gordon for any longer, he looked to his right and saw that the door was shut. “Are we allowed to go in, or…?”

“They’re talking with the doctor now, I was just giving them some privacy. Plus I had a call…” Gordon cleared his throat, “I think we should give them a few minutes.”

 _Damn it._ “Well then, I guess I didn’t need to break the speed limit getting here after all.” Henry’s heart sunk as Gordon laughed in response, the sound painfully familiar yet so foreign to Henry. It filled him with a painful combination of longing and comfort. He sat down on the floor, his back against the wall and his eyes staring straight ahead. He didn’t even want to look at Gordon, afraid of what other feelings would bubble up inside him.

Henry had to bite back a groan when Gordon moved to sit beside him. Their legs were inches apart, and Henry narrowly resisted banging his head on the wall behind him out of frustration. Was Gordon doing this on purpose? Did he know how agonizing this was for him? Surely this was payback for ripping his heart into shreds, cutting all contact, and fleeing to another country. Surely it had to be.

“How’ve you been?”

Gordon’s tone made Henry melt. After all this time, after the way Henry treated him… how dare he sound so sweet and genuine.

Gordon continued with a chuckle, “I heard you moved to London, is that right?”

Henry nodded, “Yeah, been there for a couple months now.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it. I got a job working at a museum, so that’s… different.”

Gordon’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “A museum? Never would’ve pictured you working in a place like that.”

“But you _could_ picture me walking around in tight pants seducing money out of drunk, horny people?” Henry gave Gordon a feigned-offended look, “I’m hurt.”

Gordon’s face flushed a slight tinge of red, “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“I know, I’m just messing with you,” Henry giggled, waving his hand dismissively. “So I take it you still work there?”

Gordon nodded.

“Anything exciting happen since I’ve been gone?”

Gordon thought for a moment, “People really miss you. Apparently a lot of people ask if you still work there.”

Henry scoffed, “Sure, the ones who want to stick more than dollar bills down my pants.”

Gordon laughed, throwing his head back against the wall. Henry joined him, happy that the tension was slowly ebbing away the more they talked. As much as Henry appreciated things not being cold between them, he realized it would’ve been easier to deal with that than to deal with the feeling that started stirring around inside him. Henry went quiet.

Gordon’s laugh faded to a light chuckle. He looked over at Henry, who cursed himself for letting himself look at Gordon in the first place, a small smile on his face. “It’s good seeing you again. It’s been, what, six months?”

Henry nodded.

Gordon looked away, eyes focused straight ahead. “It’s been… strange, not hearing from you at all for so long. You didn’t have to be a stranger, you know.”

 _Shit shit shit, abort abort abort!_ “I-”

The door suddenly opening startled them, both looking up only to see the doctor exiting the room. She gave them a gentle smile, “You two can go in now.”

Henry thanked her and practically scrambled to his feet, hurrying inside.

-

“So I’ll be free to go tomorrow morning, they’re only keeping me overnight to be safe.”

“Wow,” Henry said quietly, “a false alarm, huh?”

Edward nodded, “Thankfully. If I had gone into labor now the baby would’ve had some… issues, to say the least.”

James lovingly stroked Edward’s hair, “But we don’t have to worry about it now, so no sense in talking like that. You’re both going to be fine.” James leaned down and kissed the top of Edward’s head.

Edward smiled gratefully.

Soon, Gordon’s phone rang, and he reluctantly told everyone it was time for him to leave. Everyone said their goodbyes, and as Gordon headed out the door, his eyes met Henry’s, and for one short moment there was a flash of emotion Henry couldn’t quite recognize, but it still filled him with that familiar sense of longing. The door shut with a quiet click.

Henry turned back and saw both James and Edward giving him knowing grins. “What?”

“So,” James snickered, “wanna tell us what all that was about?”

Edward smirked, “You two spent an awfully long time outside…”

Henry was confused. He obviously missed something, judging by the looks the two were giving him. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh get real, Henry!” James rolled his eyes, “It’s obvious Gordon still has a thing for you. Did you see the way he looked at you when he left?”

Henry’s eyes shifted between James and Edward, too confused to speak.

Edward filled in the silence, “Gordon didn’t know you were going to be here, he was kicked out before we could tell him. How did he react when he saw you?”

Henry remembered how shocked Gordon looked when they first saw each other, but then he remembered how friendly he had been when they started talking. “Well, he was definitely surprised, but he was nice to me. He asked how things were, I told him how things were, it was nice.”

Edward’s brow quirked, “And did he tell you about himself at all?”

Henry blinked in realization. “Not… really…” he said quietly.

“Hah! I knew it,” James cheered, “Gordon’s still whipped!”

Edward swatted James on the arm. He gave Henry a sympathetic look, “We’ve suspected that Gordon, ah… still has some feelings for you.”

That would make sense, Henry realized. Gordon hadn’t just looked surprised to see Henry, something else about his reaction seemed… off. Like he was being a bit too friendly. “I just thought he was overdoing it, trying to keep things civil between us.”

Edward shrugged, “Maybe we’re wrong, but I can confidently say that I’m getting some weird vibes from him.”

“What kind of vibes?” Henry asked.

“He’s always asking about you, for one thing. He knows you and I still talk a lot, so he’ll ask me about you every time he sees me. I don’t think he even realizes how often he asks. On the other hand, he doesn’t like to talk about you with other people. If someone bring up something that reminds him of you, he gets visibly uncomfortable, sometimes he’ll sneak away from the conversation if he can.” Edward shrugged again, “Just seems a little weird to me.”

Henry’s heart thumped in his chest. Somehow the knowledge that Gordon might still have feelings for him wasn’t as comforting as he thought it would be.

-

By the time Henry arrived back to London, it was well past midnight, and according to the email he received while he was gone, the museum was being shut down indefinitely due to busted water pipeline. With no work for the foreseeable future, Henry debated whether or not he should just go back to Sodor to stay for a while. James and Edward’s housewarming party was in a few days, and there were other people he’d love to visit in the meantime. The problem was…

Gordon.

Now that he knew Gordon could possibly have feelings for him, Henry wasn’t sure being around him was a good idea. While he wanted nothing more than to go apologize and fix everything between them, he knew he couldn’t just jump right in and do that. He needed to take things slow, if things were going to get better between them, whether that meant remaining friends or…

Henry groaned, rubbing his temples to ease the headache that suddenly plagued him.

Still, he didn’t want Gordon to keep him from doing what he wanted, and right now he wanted to go back to Sodor and see his friends. Zipping his suitcase back up, he called a taxi and walked out the door.

-

Gordon shut the door to his apartment with an exhausted huff. Kicking off his shoes, he replayed the events of today in his mind. Mainly, the events involving Henry. Nothing could’ve prepared him for seeing Henry for the first time since…

Shaking the thought away, Gordon headed into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Thoughts of Henry still filled his mind, and he sighed in defeat. Even if he had known Henry would be there, he still would’ve felt just as anxious seeing him again. Gordon knew he’d see him again sometime, but he knew no matter how much time passed, Henry’s smile would still fill him with the overwhelming feeling of lo-

Gordon jumped when his phone rang in his pocket. Fumbling to pull it out, he frowned when he saw who was calling.

He let it go to voicemail.

He checked his inbox. He sighed, four missed calls. _She’ll have to wait_ , he thought. He pulled up Henry’s contact and was about to hit dial when he stopped. Did he really want to do this? Gordon wanted nothing more than to keep talking to Henry, to make up for the months of lost time, but the bitter realization hit him that, maybe, Henry didn’t want to talk to him. True, Gordon hadn’t bothered to reach out to Henry during those five months, but Henry could’ve easily contacted him.

Gordon rubbed his eyes in frustration. He couldn’t bring himself to be angry with Henry about all of this. He’d tried.

Sighing in defeat, he decided to return his girlfriend's missed calls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, for one, don't find the word 'queer' offensive unless it's said in a way that you just know someone doesn't mean well...
> 
> I feel like Henry would hate it though. Plus that nurse was probably a bitch. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	3. Chapter 3

As much as Edward loved having guests and hosting parties, he was beginning to realize that throwing one in a new house while being nearly eight months pregnant was not a good idea. He was beginning to worry about trivial things, such as guests not using coasters, or running out of ice.

Thankfully, Henry knew Edward well enough to bring two bags of ice with him when he arrived.

“Angel. You’re an absolute angel, I hope you know that.” Edward yanked the bags from Henry’s arms and began pouring the ice into the drink coolers.

Henry laughed, just as James came into the kitchen.

“Babe, the coasters are a lost cause, so you might as well stop worrying about- Henry, you’re here! Maybe you can help me calm Edward down,” James gave Edward’s ass a playful swat.

“Touch my butt again and I’m shoving every one of those unused coasters up your-”

“Hey,” Henry suddenly cut in, “why don’t you tell me who’s here? Anybody I know?”

James leaned against the counter lazily, “Well, I invited some people from college I haven’t seen in a while, you might recognize some of them. Edward invited a couple old friends…” Suddenly James’ face split into a smug grin, “Gordon’s here too.”

Henry glared at James, “Wipe that smirk off your face.”

“Not until you wipe the blush off of yours.”

Henry blinked. Was his face red? It didn’t feel red…

With a strained grunt, Edward stood up and tossed the empty bags in the trash, giving Henry a pitying look. “You do look a little flushed,” he said, stifling a laugh.

Henry shrunk into himself in embarrassment. “It’s cold out…” he grumbled.

James snickered, “It’s only 68 degrees out.”

With an annoyed huff, Henry grabbed a bottle of who-knows-what and stormed out into the living room.

Looking around, Henry realized he really didn’t know that many people here. He recognized some of the former classmates James mentioned inviting, as well as Donald and Douglas, but most of the others were new to him. Just as he was about to give up on spotting a familiar face, he saw Gordon across the room. Henry’s heart leapt, whether because of joy or nerves, he couldn’t tell.

Weaving through the crowd (who know a housewarming party could have so many people...), Henry smiled when Gordon looked up and saw him. He didn’t seem as taken aback this time, which Henry took note of.

“I was wondering when you’d get here,” Gordon teased.

Henry shrugged sheepishly. He was about to make up some excuse about traffic when he noticed the woman standing beside Gordon. “Oh, I don’t think we’ve met.”

The woman smiled, “That’s right, I forgot we haven’t actually met before.” She turned to look at Gordon, “This is Henry, right?”

Confused, Henry gave Gordon a sort of ‘wtf?’ look.

Gordon cleared his throat awkwardly, “Yes, this is him.” He turned to Henry, “This is my girlfriend, Caitlin. I guess she recognizes you from some old photos.”

Henry would’ve spit his drink if he’d taken a sip. Caitlin was laughing and saying something, but he couldn’t hear her. Gordon’s words rang in his ear: my girlfriend, Caitlin, girlfriend, photos, _girlfriend_... “Oh, cool!”

Henry mentally smacked himself. Cool?!

Henry continued, “How long have you two…?”

“Almost five months now.” Caitlin gave Gordon a gentle nudge on the arm, “Would you mind getting me a refill? White wine, please.”

Gordon nodded, took her glass, and went into the kitchen.

Henry was about to speak when Caitlin held up her hand to silence him. Her expression was soft, but Henry was still unnerved by the situation.

Caitlin spoke, “I know this is probably incredibly awkward for you, and I don’t want it to be. Gordon told me what happened, though I’m sure his story was a bit biased… My point is, I don’t want things to be weird between you and Gordon, and between you and me.”

Henry felt the weight lift from his shoulders. He was still curious what exactly Gordon told her, but he felt better about everything. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“I’ve been in your position, I know it can suck.”

“Please don’t judge me for saying ‘cool’....”

Caitlin laughed loudly, “There are worse things you could’ve said.”

-

Once Gordon and Caitlin left, Henry had nobody to talk to, so he wandered around aimlessly, hoping to spot another familiar face. He didn’t really feel like staying much longer, not after the whole ‘girlfriend’ bomb was dropped on him, but he didn’t want to just leave without speaking with James and Edward again.

An arm around his shoulder startled him out of his thoughts. He turned to see Edward, who gestured Henry down the hall away from the crowd. Once they were out of sight, Edward gave Henry a concerned look. “You looked a little lost out there,” Edward laughed, “everything okay?”

“I mean…” Henry paused, “I wasn’t exactly expecting to find out Gordon had a girlfriend, it kinda took me by surprise.”

Edward’s eyes widened in surprise, “I forgot you didn’t know about Caitlin.”

“Yeah, this is news to me,” Henry huffed. “Why did you guys insist Gordon still had feelings for me if you knew he has a girlfriend?”

Edward bit his lip and looked down awkwardly, “Because, well… James and I still got that sort of vibe from him, even after we knew he was dating someone.”

“I don’t like where this is going…”

Edward let out a huff, “There’s a possibility that he still does have feelings for you, even though he has a girlfriend. It’s not ideal, but it could be the case.”

Henry suddenly felt incredibly guilty.

-

_“I know what you’re going to say, and I can explain.”_

Even over the phone, Gordon’s voice had that sound, like he’d been backed into a corner. Henry scoffed, propping the phone up to his ear with his shoulder. “You better be able to explain. How come you never told me about Caitlin?” Henry heard Gordon sigh.

_”It never came up when we talked…”_

Henry rolled his eyes, “Really? What about when I start every call asking what you’ve been up to that day? Seems like a good opportunity to tell me about, I don’t know, a new relationship, maybe?”

_”...that’s fair.”_

Henry gave a stern ‘hmm’ in response.

_”Please don’t be upset, I promise I wasn’t hiding it on purpose. I wanted to tell you, really. I just…”_

Henry waited for Gordon to finish. When he never did, Henry spoke, “Gordon, you realize this doesn’t look good for you right? If I had known you were in a relationship, I wouldn’t have had some of those conversations. Hell, I wouldn’t have continued talking on the phone with you every day! Talking to your ex while you’re seeing someone else isn’t exactly something most would approve of, you know? I really thought…” Henry trailed off. He didn’t want to give Gordon any ideas, but he thought that things between them were getting better, better enough that maybe they could…

Gordon’s voice cut off Henry’s thought, _“I understand, and I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. Part of me worried you wouldn’t want to talk to me at all once you knew…”_

“If you hadn’t lied to me, I would’ve limited our calls, but I wouldn’t have just stopped talking to you. You having a girlfriend doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. But talking every day? That’s…” Henry stopped cold as realization hit him. “Does Caitlin know we talk?”

There was a long pause. _“No.”_

“Gordon,” Henry said quietly, “this is cheating.” Henry was surprised to hear Gordon laugh in response.

_“No it’s not, nothing we’re doing is even remotely close to cheating!”_

Henry let out an annoyed huff, “Then why doesn’t Caitlin know we’re talking?”

_“I just… I don’t want her to worry-”_

“Because you’re cheating.”

_“Henry, no-”_

“Oh my god, I’m the side chick…”

_“No, you’re not the-”_

“I’m a homewrecker!”

_“Henry!”_ Gordon said firmly. _“Stop. You’re not a homewrecker. There’s no home to wreck, first of all. And second of all, there’s nothing between you and I going on that we need to hide. Everything is fine.”_

Henry took in Gordon’s words, but they did little to calm him down. “If there’s nothing to hide, then why are you hiding it?”

_“...”_

“Look, I know we said we’d never get too deep with these conversations, but this is serious. I’m not going to let you do something stupid and ruin things with Caitlin. You deserve to be happy with what you have, I don’t want you to end up, I don’t know… pining over someone who screwed you over.”

_“Well, it’s a little late for that.”_

Henry felt something twist inside him. Maybe it was dread, maybe it was hope… “Gordon, what are you saying?”

_“...”_

“Answer me. You opened this can of worms, now… eat it? I don’t know how the saying goes, to be honest-”

_“I never stopped loving you.”_

Oh.

-

Every tired muscle in Edward’s body screamed at him to just collapse onto the bed and pass out, but he didn’t feel like dealing with James throwing a tantrum about “jiggling the baby” again, so he carefully laid down, sinking into the pillows. He absentmindedly ran his hand over his stomach, the bump now very noticeable. The flutter of kicks that greeted him made Edward’s heart soar, the feeling would never grow old. Edward reached over to nudge James, knowing how excited he gets when he feels the baby kick, but James was out cold, snoring like a bear.

Edward barely contained his laughter at the sight of James sprawled out, jaw hanging open, probably drooling. _There he is_ , Edward thought, _the father of my child_.

Going back to feeling his stomach, Edward couldn’t help but wish the baby would be born soon. He reached over and pulled open his bedside table drawer, taking out the small box. Prying it open, he admired the ring that sat inside, the ring that sat in that drawer for weeks now. With a defeated sigh, Edward put the ring back and shut the drawer. He knew that all the chaos of having a baby wouldn’t mix well with planning a wedding, but he didn’t like waiting this long to get married.

_Oh well_ , Edward thought, _I can wait. He’ll be worth it._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update? Two days in a row? On my fic?
> 
> It's more likely than you think.

Stunned, Henry took a moment to process what Gordon had just said to him. He could hardly believe it, “But... I treated you like dirt.”

_“Henry, don’t-”_

“How could you still feel anything but resentment toward me after what I did?”

_“I did, for a little while. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to hate you. Even after I met Caitlin I still felt just as much love for you as I did before… everything happened.”_

Henry was speechless. A small part of him enjoyed the thought of Gordon still having feelings for him after all this time, but he knew this wasn’t right. They were over. Done. Officially exes. He knew he and Gordon both needed to move on.

But Henry didn’t want to.

And Gordon clearly didn’t want to move on either.

Henry spoke softly, barely able to form the words, “I’m sorry.”

_“I know, we’ve been over this before.”_

“Yes, we both apologized and everything, but I think there’s more I want to say. Every single day I regret what I did. I should have found a way to make things work with us, even if we didn’t get married. I thought that breaking things off was what I needed, but it’s only…” Henry trailed off, fighting the tears he felt forming. “I lost you, and I hate it. My life isn’t any better since leaving you, it’s just different. Every single day I regret my decision.”

_“You’re not the only one who regrets everything.”_

“No, but I am the only one who was really fucking stupid.”

 _“You said it, not me,”_ Gordon chuckled. _“But really, I regret everything too. I shouldn’t have pressured you-”_

“You didn’t pressure me, Gordon.”

_“-and I shouldn’t have encouraged you to leave like that. I was so close to asking you to stay, but I thought that would just make things worse.”_

“To be fair, it probably would’ve.”

Gordon gave a ‘hmm’ in agreement. _“The point is…”_

Henry listened intently, his heart beating rapidly.

Gordon continued after a long pause, _“I want to fix things between us.”_

Words stirred around in Henry’s mind but they wouldn’t come out. His head felt fuzzy. After all this time, this was his shot to repair what had been broken- what _he_ had broken. “What do you mean?”

Gordon let out a huff of breath as he thought. _“I’m not sure. All I know is I just want you back in my life. I want things to go back to the way they were before I messed everything up.”_

“Gordon,” Henry said softly, “if you really care about Caitlin, don’t ruin things with her. Please. I'm not worth it.”

Gordon continued, _“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since you left. It still hurts knowing that I screwed up and lost you. Nothing helps. I don’t know what else to do.”_

“You didn’t screw everything up, you know, And I… I’ve thought about you too.” The moment he said it, Henry regretted it. He had thought about Gordon, but not the same way Gordon had thought about him.

_“You don’t have to lie to me, I know you’ve been focused on other things.”_

Henry felt a wave of relief. And guilt. “You’re right, but I really have thought about you. Specifically, how much I missed you, and what we could’ve had.”

Gordon laughed weakly, _“Caitlin and I saw some puppies in the window of the pet store downtown last week, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. There was a fat little Chow puppy you would’ve gone crazy for.”_ Gordon snickered when he heard Henry’s squealing over the phone, _“See, I knew it.”_

“I must’ve told you my favorite dog breed almost a year ago, I can’t believe you remembered!”

_“How could I not remember, with you making that ungodly sound when someone so much as mentions anything about puppies?”_

Henry laughed, “Sorry about that…”

_“There’s a lot I remember about you. You’re hard to forget.”_

Henry’s heart swelled.

Gordon continued, _“So, what do you say?”_

“...say to what?”

_“Why don’t we try and fix this?”_

Henry’s smile fell. He knew he had to choose his next words carefully. “Gordon,” he said softly, “let’s slow down a little-”

_“I’ve thought about this. I know exactly what you’re going to say, and I’ve thought about everything. This is what I want.”_

Henry’s heart pounded, “I hope you realize what you’re saying, Gordon. This is serious.”

_”I know. I’ve thought about this for a while.”_

“...”

_”I know you have to think about this too-”_

“This can’t be our story.”

_”Wait… what do you mean?”_

“I don’t want to tell people the story of us if it goes like ‘And then he went behind his girlfriend’s back to talk to me every night, and soon we were back together as if nothing had happened!’ That’s not the story I want to tell.” Henry took a deep breath, “I think it might be too late to save this, we-”

_”There’s no girlfriend.”_

“...pardon?”

Gordon sighed, _”Caitlin and I are over.”_

Henry’s mind whirled. In one night he learned Gordon was seeing someone else, and then learned he wasn’t. If today wasn’t just a rollercoaster of learning... Henry laughed awkwardly, “Well, you could’ve mentioned that earlier.”

Gordon chuckled in agreement.

“So… what happened?”

-

The drive back from James and Edward’s party was quieter than usual. Pulling up outside Caitlin’s house, Gordon parked his car in the driveway. He was about to say goodbye when Caitlin spoke up:

“Why don’t you come inside?”

Gordon hesitated. Usually when Caitlin invited him in, things got a little… intimate. At first he didn’t mind, he even looked forward to it. But over time he found himself dreading the inevitable invitation to spend the night after they went out together. When they were together his thoughts tended to drift, and he would catch himself thinking about Henry. He felt guilty about it, and had been avoiding sex for about two weeks now. He figured Caitlin would have caught on by now, but perhaps luck was on his side.

With a ‘sure’, Gordon begrudgingly accepted her invitation. Following her inside, he tried in vain to free himself from any thoughts of Henry, determined to keep his thoughts on Caitlin for at least one night.

Caitlin shut the door and motioned to Gordon to have a seat on the couch.

Gordon was unnerved by her silence. Caitlin was always so talkative and loud, the silence was an eerie and uncharacteristic change. “Is everything okay?”

Caitlin let out a short breath. “Actually,” she said, “I was getting ready to ask you the same thing. Though I think I already know the answer.”

Gordon was confused, “What are you talking about?”

Caitlin sat in a chair across from Gordon, crossing her legs. She gave Gordon a ‘you know exactly what I’m talking about’ look.

“...I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

Caitlin laughed, sounding equal parts amused and hurt. “I know you still care about Henry, I could see it in your face when he talked with us tonight. The entire time you were watching him. You looked completely enamored.”

Gordon’s face turned red. “I wasn’t-”

“Believe me,” Caitlin chuckled, “I know what I saw.”

“Caitlin, I’m so sorry,” Gordon said, "I don't know what's come over me-"

“You don’t have to apologize,” Caitlin said, her voice soft. “I’m not upset. Yeah, it stings a little bit, but I know what you guys went through, and I understand how you feel. I heard the way you talked about him before we started dating. I was completely surprised when you asked me out, to be honest.”

Gordon knew Caitlin was right, but he couldn’t admit it to himself. Yes, he still had some feelings for Henry, even after everything that happened between them. He knew this pretty early on, and he suspected the wound would never fully heal. But surely his feelings weren’t intense enough for anyone to have noticed… right?

“Gordon, I think it’s time you faced the music,” Caitlin said, quieter than Gordon had ever heard her speak before. “It’s over between us. There was barely even an ‘us’ to begin with.”

Gordon frowned, “You weren’t just a rebound, you know.”

“Maybe not,” Caitlin shrugged, “but I know things between us were just… off. And I know exactly why.”

Gordon was silent.

“You should know why, too.”

Gordon remained silent.

“Tell him, Gordon.”

-

_”So, I’m telling you. I still love you. I never stopped.”_

“...”

_”...Henry, I’ve quite literally poured my heart out to you, which was not an easy thing to do, I’m getting a little nervous here-”_

“We need to talk in person. Meet me at your apartment in… four hours.”

_”But... that’s nearly five in the morning!”_

“Did I fucking stutter?”

-

Gordon put down his phone, his mind racing. Surely Henry wasn’t going to come all this way… His heart leapt. He knew he should have protested, but the thought of having Henry in their apartment again…

Gordon chuckled. _Their_ apartment. He already wasn’t thinking straight.

But… it would feel like their apartment again.

-

Edward woke around five in the morning to the sound of his phone buzzing. Whoever was texting him at this ungodly hour would have hell to pay…

Rolling over with a strained grunt, Edward plucked his phone from the bedside table. His brow furrowed when he saw Henry’s name on the screen. Opening the message, his eyes went wide with surprise.

_’I’m back in Sodor, and I’m about to make either the best or worst decision of my life. Text back when you’re awake.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I hear three? Three updates? Depends on when I finish the next chapter, and I've got a lot to write...


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is responsible for the rating change, so... ye be warned.

Henry’s body felt numb as he knocked on the door to Gordon’s apartment. He’d only been gone for six months, yet the building felt foreign to him. Knowing James and Edward weren’t down the hall added to that foreign-ness. Henry didn't like it.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Henry’s heart stopped. His eyes met Gordon’s, and neither of them spoke a word for a few moments. Henry took a deep, shuddering breath. He had been so confident in his decision to come all this way to talk to Gordon, but now that he was looking into his eyes, the confidence vanished. He felt just as nervous as when he saw Gordon standing there in the hospital weeks ago. “Hi,” he said sheepishly.

“Hi,” Gordon replied back, his voice sending a chill down Henry’s spine.

Before he could even blink, Henry was swept into a fierce kiss. Gordon’s arms wrapped around him, pulling him close. Henry returned the kiss eagerly, his hands gripping Gordon’s arms. He felt Gordon pull him a few steps backwards, shutting the door with his foot once they were inside. Henry let out a muffled groan when he felt his back press against the door.

With a jolt, Henry came to his senses, eyes widening in surprise. He pulled back from the kiss. “Gordon,” Henry gasped, “we can’t do this, I just came here to talk to you!”

Gordon simply grinned at him. “Then talk,” he purred, kissing a trail up Henry’s neck.

“I’m- ah! I’m trying to-...” A particularly hard nip to his earlobe cut Henry off, and he bit his lip to keep quiet. His hands weakly pushed against Gordon’s chest, but the kisses on his neck continued as Gordon’s hands gripped Henry’s hips firmly. Henry moaned when he felt Gordon’s hips grind against his own. “Gordon…”

Gordon leaned back to look Henry in the eyes. “Just say the word and I’ll stop.” His voice was gravelly from arousal, sending a shiver down Henry’s spine.

Henry looked into Gordon’s eyes, and said nothing.

Gordon snickered. “Thought so,” he said, before he continued rolling his hips against Henry’s, kissing along Henry’s jaw moving towards his lips.

Henry silently chastised himself for not putting a stop to what they were doing, but the jolts of pleasure coming from his abdomen were convincing him he made a good decision. He knew he’d regret this in a few hours, so he figured he’d just go ahead and enjoy himself now. He draped his arms around Gordon’s neck, pulling him into another deep kiss. His hips met Gordon’s thrusts, drawing out a satisfied groan from each of them.

Gordon’s hands wandered under Henry’s shirt, feeling the familiar dips and curves. He gently nudged Henry’s arms up so he could slip the shirt off, tossing it away. His own shirt soon followed, and he guided Henry over to the couch, lowering him so he lay on his back with Gordon on top of him, never breaking their kiss.

Henry only realized what was happening when he felt Gordon fumbling to get his pants unbuttoned. Panicking, he pushed Gordon’s hand away. “Wait,” Henry said breathlessly.

Looking up in concern, Gordon withdrew his hand immediately. “Too much?” he asked.

Henry nodded, “Let’s just… slow down a little.”

With an understanding smile, Gordon leaned in and kissed Henry, this time much more gentle. “So,” he smirked, “you said you wanted to talk?”

Before Henry could respond, Gordon kissed him again. Henry laughed and turned his face away, “I’m trying, you horny bastard!”

“Horny bastard?!” Gordon said with a gasp, pretending to be offended.

Henry laughed, “You heard me. Horny bastard.”

“Dirty hippie.”

“Fat face.”

“Hen-hen.”

Henry gasped, swatting Gordon’s arm playfully. “You know I hate that nickname!”

“What are you going to do about it?”

With a mischievous look, Henry wiggled up the couch and away from Gordon. "Guess I'll just have to go home, then..." He yelped as Gordon reached up and pulled him back down, both of them laughing. Gordon leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together. Their eyes locked, and the laughter died down.

Henry cleared his throat, “So… let’s talk.”

Gordon nodded, his eyes never leaving Henry’s.

“What are we?” Henry said, his voice faltering. “What are we doing?”

Gordon took a deep breath, “What do you want to do?”

Henry thought for a second. “Go slow,” he said, “I don’t want to rush things.”

One of Gordon’s hands interlocked with Henry’s, his thumb running over his knuckles soothingly. “Do you think you’re going to change your mind about this?”

Henry bit his lip. He knew Gordon was worried that he would leave him again, and to be honest, Henry worried about that too. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened before. “Not if we take things slow.”

Gordon smiled, “You set the pace, then. Tell me what you want, what you don’t want, anything. I want you to be comfortable with this.” He gave Henry a gentle kiss on the cheek, “I don’t want to lose you again.”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Henry pulled Gordon down into a hug, pressing his face into the side of Gordon’s neck. He took in Gordon’s smell, a smell he didn’t realize he missed until he felt tears start to fall. That familiar feeling of longing swelled up inside him. It was different this time, however, knowing what he wanted was finally happening. The longing feeling felt more… bittersweet.

Henry heard a sniffle, then felt Gordon’s arms tighten their hold. _Is he… crying?_ Henry thought. Another muffled sniffle confirmed this. _Oh…_ Henry felt a pang in his chest. Gordon _never_ cried. Henry stroked Gordon’s hair lovingly and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Everything okay?”

Without looking up, Gordon nodded. He kept his face buried in Henry’s shoulder, his voice muffled, “I’m just… I’m so happy you’re here.”

Henry smiled, leaning his head against Gordon’s. “I’m happy I’m here, too.”

Gordon leaned back, looking at Henry with sad eyes. Henry felt another pang in his chest when he saw the tears that ran down Gordon’s cheeks. “Are you absolutely sure?”

Henry took a deep breath. Gordon had every right to ask him that. “Yes.”

Gordon said nothing, watching Henry intently as if trying to read his mind.

With a flirty smile, Henry pulled Gordon into a kiss. He wrapped his legs around Gordon’s, pulling him in closer. “Let me prove it to you...”

-

A strong kick from the baby woke Edward up. He grumbled, looking over at the clock. Half past seven. He supposed that wasn’t the worst time to be kicked awake… He smiled as he pressed a hand to his stomach, feeling each little _thump_. Turning his head, he saw James still asleep. _Lucky bastard_... Edward thought with a chuckle.

Suddenly, he remembered the text from Henry he received earlier. He grabbed his phone and began typing:

_’Okay, I’m awake now, thanks to baby. Was it the best decision, or the worst decision?’_

A minute later, his phone buzzed.

_’Not sure yet.’_

Edward replied, _’What was the decision?’_

Another buzz: _’Well, I’m in Gordon’s bed.’_

_’Asdfghjkl… you what??’_

No response.

Edward rubbed his eyes with a groan. He loved Henry, but he was an idiot sometimes…

James stirred beside him, mumbling something in his sleep. Reaching over, Edward nudged him to try to wake him. Another mumble. Edward rolled his eyes. “James, wake up,” he hissed, “you’ll never guess what just happened.”

Groggily, James sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Is the baby okay?” he yawned.

Edward waved his hand dismissively, “Yes, the baby is fine. This is about Henry.”

“Oh,” James said, “what did he do now?”

“He’s at Gordon’s place as we speak.”

James’ face instantly lit up. “He is?! That’s awesome! It’s about time they-”

“Wait a minute,” Edward frowned, “you think that’s a good thing?”

James gave Edward a confused look, “Of course I do, don’t you? Gordon’s been miserable without Henry, and I don’t think Henry’s been much better.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were ‘miserable’ while they were apart…”

“Oh get real, Edward. Maybe Henry was doing okay, but Gordon was a mess. He’s been pining over Henry since the minute they split.”

Edward gasped, “Wait, what about Caitlin?”

James blinked, “Shit...”

“Wait a minute, Henry knows Gordon has a girlfriend, and he still…?” Edward was furious. “He’s done a lot of stupid things recently, but this is too far. I’ll kill him. I’ll-”

“Eddy, calm down, I’m sure there’s some explanation-”

Edward grabbed his phone and stormed off.

-

Henry couldn’t think of a way to confirm to Edward that, yes, he was with Gordon, in his bed, and they had done exactly what Edward was probably thinking. He sighed, setting his phone down. Looking over at Gordon, he smiled at the familiar sight of Gordon’s messy hair splayed across the pillow, one arm hanging off the edge of the bed. Henry laughed, Gordon only slept like that when he was particularly exhausted. He felt his face heat up when he remembered what exactly had tired Gordon out in the first place.

Suddenly, he heard his phone buzzing. Edward was calling. He took his phone and walked out into the living room, not wanting to wake up Gordon. “Hello?”

_”Henry, I’ve been your best friend for many years now, and I’ve watched you do a lot of stupid things. But this? This is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. You deserve a medal.”_

Henry blinked, “Thank you…?”

_”What were you thinking? Did you plan for this to happen? And how could you do this to Caitlin? Don't get me wrong, Gordon isn’t completely without fault here, and I’m going to have some stern words with him about this later, but-”_

“Edward, there is no Caitlin.”

_”...what?”_

Henry sighed, “I know, I had the same reaction. I’ll let Gordon fill you in on what happened, but the point is they broke up. And I didn’t come all this way just to sleep with him, I came down here to talk to him. Things just… happened.”

Edward was silent for a moment. “So, what did you guys talk about?”

Henry sat on the couch, fiddling with one of the throw pillows. They were new, which Henry noted. “I’m not going to lie, we didn’t do as much talking as I hoped we would.”

Edward gave a smug ‘mm-hmm’.

Henry continued, “But I told Gordon that if we’re going to do this, I wanted to go slow. He agreed, and said he wanted me to ‘set the pace’ so I was comfortable. Then…” Henry paused, unsure if he wanted to tell Edward about what else Gordon had said.

Edward must have picked up on his apprehension. _”Did something else happen?”_ he said, sounding worried.

“Well, I’m not sure what to think of this, but… Gordon cried. Like, _really cried_. We sort of held each other for a little while, and he told me how he was happy I was with him, and how he didn’t want to lose me again.”

_”Oh dear…”_

Henry’s heart sank, “Oh dear?”

_”I don’t know how to put this nicely, so I won’t. Is there even the slightest chance you’re going to bail on Gordon again? Because if you do, he’s going to be crushed, even more than he was the first time. He loves you, Henry. He_ adores _you, to the point where I’m honestly a little worried…”_

“Worried about what?”

Edward sighed, _”I’m worried that you guys are going to fall into a pattern. He’s going to get clingy, you’re going to leave to get space, he’s going to fall apart, you’re going to feel bad and go back to him, only to do the same thing over and over again.”_

Henry’s jaw clenched, “Do you really think I came here out of pity? Or that I would have done this if Gordon was still in a relationship? What kind of person do you think I am?”

_”Henry, I didn’t mean-”_

“It doesn’t matter what you meant, Edward, it’s what you said. You called me to chew me out for being a homewrecker, then you instead chose to chew me out for toying with Gordon like I didn’t care about him. What have I done to give you the impression I would do such horrible things?”

_”...Henry, I-”_

Henry scoffed, “You know what? Forget it. I’m sorry I told you about all of this, I’ll be sure to just keep these things to myself from now on. Tell James I said hello.”

_”Wait a second-!”_

Henry cut him off by hanging up, tossing his phone onto the couch beside him.

With a huff, Henry pulled his legs up to rest his chin on his knees. He sat there fuming, thinking about what Edward had said. How could Edward think he would do such things? Did Edward really think he was that horrible? Henry wiped his cheek as he felt a tear slide down.

A small noise made him jump. Gordon stood in the doorway, yawning.

“Oh goodness, I woke you up, didn’t I? I’m so sorry…-”

“You didn’t wake me, it’s okay. Was that Edward?” Gordon asked, sitting down beside Henry. His eyes went wide, “You’re crying… what happened?”

Henry laughed weakly, “How much did you hear?”

“Not enough to understand what’s wrong,” Gordon put his arms around Henry, pulling him into a comforting hug. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Henry explained what Edward had said, reluctantly including the part where Edward had asked him if he was going to leave Gordon again.

Gordon frowned, “Well, in his defense, I hadn’t told him about Caitlin yet.”

“Still,” Henry fumed, “the fact that he really thought I’d put us all in that situation… He’s known me for all these years, and he actually thought…”

Gordon nodded, “I’ll admit, that’s quite the conclusion he came to.”

Henry crossed his arms and grumbled something under his breath, leaning into Gordon. Feeling his arms around him was comforting, another feeling he didn’t know he missed until now.

Gordon chuckled, “You guys will get over this, this isn’t the first time you two have fought, and it won’t be the last.”

“Friendship ended with Edward,” Henry mumbled, “now Gordon is my best friend.”

Rolling his eyes, Gordon ruffled Henry’s hair. “Give it time,” he said softly, “why don’t you come back to bed? It’s only eight, we can stay in bed and be lazy for another hour at least.”

Henry agreed and followed Gordon into the bedroom, still sulking.

-

James jumped when Edward suddenly stormed back into the bedroom, climbing back in bed and yanking the covers up over his head.

James bit his lip to contain his laughter, “So… how’d it go?”

-

About an hour later, Henry was still under the covers with Gordon, letting the sound of his heartbeat calm him down. He was still upset with Edward, but he decided to put their argument out of his mind for a while to enjoy this moment with Gordon. He smiled to himself, taking in the feeling of Gordon’s chest rising and falling with each breath, his arm draped across Henry’s shoulders, holding him close. Henry felt happier than he had felt in a long time. He chuckled, "I noticed you got new pillows for the couch, did you wash the old ones with bleach like I told you not to do?"

Gordon groaned, "No, I did not wash them with bleach. You certainly drilled that into my head..."

"Then why replace them? I liked the old ones, they matched the curtains perfectly, which I notice you've also replaced. How could you?" Henry laughed, swatting Gordon playfully.

Gordon didn't say anything for a moment. He sighed, "They reminded me of you."

Oh. Now Henry regretted mentioning it at all... "I see," he said sadly.

Neither of them spoke for what seemed like hours.

Finally, Gordon broke the silence, “So… I suppose you’ll have to be heading back to London soon.”

Henry frowned, snuggling closer into Gordon’s chest, “Yeah…” He felt Gordon’s head rest against his own, “I won’t be staying there for much longer anyway. I was thinking about moving back to Sodor once my lease was up.”

“And when is that?”

“...in six months.”

“...oh.”

Henry sighed. After the events of last night, he didn’t really want to go back to London. However, for the sake of taking things slow, he figured it was for the best. “I have to go back, I need to find another job until the museum is back up and running, or my lease is up, whichever comes first.”

Gordon nodded in understanding.

Henry got dressed and gave Gordon a quick goodbye before heading out, leaving a lonely Gordon to lay in bed to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot the meme ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Henry did when he got back to London was fill out an application to work for Glynn at his coffee shop. He needed another job in case things didn’t work out at the museum, and the idea of working with Glynn thrilled him. Something about the old man was endearing to Henry, and he already knew him well enough that things wouldn’t feel awkward.

Application in hand, Henry pushed the door to the shop open, the familiar smell of coffee greeting him. He looked around for Glynn, but the old man wasn’t around. Henry knew he’d have to come in eventually, so he sat down at a table in the corner to wait, watching people as they walked past the window.

He hadn’t been waiting long when he heard someone say his name.

“Henry? Henry Stainer?”

The voice saying his name was foreign to him, and Henry looked up in confusion. Standing a few feet away from his table were three men, looking at him. Their faces looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place them. “Do I… know you guys?”

The man standing closest to Henry laughed, “I guess not, but I didn’t expect you to. We went to high school together.”

They each stated their names, but Henry didn’t recognize them. He still couldn’t figure out why these men looked familiar to him.

One sighed, “We were all stage technicians for _Into The Woods_ and _Grease_ , you had lead roles in those musicals, right?”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. “Oh wow, last time I saw you guys was-”

“The cast party that we crashed,” one guy snickered. “Pretty sure you had Patrick McClain’s tongue down your throat last time I saw you.”

Henry felt his heart stop. Memories long repressed flooded his mind all at once.

-

Smacking his gum, Henry leaned against the wall and observed the crowd. Auditions had drawn quite a crowd this year. Too bad he was going to squash them all soon.

“So,” Henry’s friend asked, “which part are you trying out for?”

Henry blew a bubble as he hummed in thought. Once it popped, he sneered, looking over the crowd once again. “Doesn’t really matter,” he chuckled, “I’ll get a big role anyway.”

“I dunno, there’s a decent crowd this year.”

“Not for long…” With a grunt Henry stood, giving his friend a wink before he walked over to a frightened looking freshman. “You’re Jackie, right? Is this your first audition?” Henry asked.

The girl nodded.

“Don’t be nervous,” Henry said, a little too sweetly. “I think it’s pretty brave of you to audition. The judges usually laugh at the people who’ve clearly never auditioned for anything before, but I’m sure you’ll be fine!”

The girl went pale. Without a word, she scooped up her belongings and ran out of the room. Henry watched her leave, giving a sarcastic goodbye wave as she ran out the door.

Approaching another student, who was busy memorizing their prepared monologue, Henry stood beside them nonchalantly. “Huh,” Henry said, glancing at their paper, “that looks like it’ll be longer than two minutes, but I’m sure you’ve a timed it already.” The student ran out almost as quickly as the first did.

Another student visibly tensed when he saw Henry coming over.  
Henry smiled, “Good luck, Roger. Although I’m sure you won’t need it, there’s hardly any cords for you to trip over this year.”

Henry made his way around the room, intimidating anyone he deemed as competition into fleeing. Soon the room was half as full as it was before. He waltzed back to where his friend stood, both of them struggling to contain their laughter.

“You’re the worst,” his friend giggled.

Henry smirked, “I know.”

-

Most days Henry and his friends spent lunch sitting at a round table in the corner of the cafeteria, giggling and gossiping about anything and anyone. Today, however, they all stared down the lanky freshman standing in front of Henry. They exchanged glances, giggling amongst themselves.

Henry gave him a fake smile, “You want me to… what?”

The boy looked like he was about to vomit. “I uh, I-I...” he stammered, “I was wondering if you’d like to… be my date… for homecoming…? I-I’m sure you, uh, you probably already h-have a date and-”

Henry laughed harshly, making the boy flinch. “Look… Erin, was it?”

“Erik...”

“I’m sure you’re, uh, nice and all that. But I don’t go out with boys who look like they’re about to wet their pants when they talk to me. Grow a spine and then try again next year, sweetheart.”  
Henry and his friends cackled as Erik scurried away.

-

“Wait, please!”

Henry rolled his eyes, stopping in place. “I thought we were done here, Michael. What’s your damage?”

“Are you serious? Are we really breaking up?”

“Did I fuckin’ stutter?”

Speechless, Michael’s jaw hung open in surprise. “Why? What happened?”

Henry started walking again, “I told you, I just don’t want to go out with you anymore. That’s it.”

Michael matched Henry’s pace, following beside him closely. “Can’t we talk about this? I really like you, Henry… I don’t want us to be over like this.”

“Well, it’s over. Deal with it.”

Michael stopped walking, prompting Henry to stop and turn around and face him. “Fine,” he said, his voice dripping with anger. He shook his head in disbelief, “I should’ve known this would happen, I don’t know why I thought I’d be any different than the other guys. My mistake.”

“Get lost, Michael.” Henry said through gritted teeth.

Michael’s face turned cold. “I really thought you had changed. I should’ve known you’d run, again. Typical.”

Henry scoffed, turning to walk away.

Michael shouted after him, “You can’t keep doing this. You’re going to end up losing someone and regretting it, and you’ll deserve it after the way you’ve treated guys who really care about you.”

-

Henry felt the color drain from his face. Years of repressing memories of high school, undone in a single moment.

One of the two men in the back spoke up, “I can’t believe you missed the _Grease_ cast reunion last year, you should’ve been there! People would’ve shit their pants when you walked in!”

Henry blanched, “I figured everyone had forgotten about me by now.” Henry had hoped everyone had forgotten him… The thought of anyone else but him remembering how he acted as a teenager made him feel sick.

The man in front of him laughed, “How could anyone forget _the Henry Stainer_ , you straight up boycotted a class with his friends when the teacher increased homework.”

“Uhhm, yeah, that’s not-”

“Man, remember when you would scare the substitute teachers into letting you and your friends ditch class? Iconic.”

“I don’t really-”

“People still call you The Runner after all those boyfriends you ditched-”

“Guys, cut it out!” Henry shouted, causing the three men to stare at him in disbelief. He continued, “I’m not that person anymore. I’m not the drama queen, I’m not the guy who doesn’t give a shit about other people, I’m just… not the guy I was back then. I’ve worked so hard to leave that all behind, and I’d like that to stay in the past, if you don’t mind. I’m sure there’s plenty of high school memories you have of me that don’t involve me being, you know… an ass. I mean, I was president of the LGBT Alliance club for two years, you guys remember that, right?”

The three men looked at each other in awkward silence. One of them spoke up, “I guess so, but… you weren’t exactly known for being a class act. You were just that popular asshole who’d give someone a verbal lashing if they even looked at you funny. People looked up to you for that. You didn’t take anybody’s shit. You were an icon, except to the people who got in your way. I figured you’d be happy people remember you all these years later.”

Henry rubbed his temple in exasperation, “Well, sorry that I’m not exactly thrilled that people remember me like _that_.”

“Well, how else are they supposed to remember you?”

At that moment, Glynn popped up from behind the counter. Henry pleaded with whatever deity would listen that Glynn hadn’t heard any of the conversation that just happened.

Glynn smiled, “Oh, hello Henry! Here to give me your application?”

“I’ve got to go,” Henry huffed. He practically threw the forms at Glynn on his way out, not that he had a chance of getting hired now, after Glynn heard all of that awful stuff about him. Henry scoffed. He might as well have shredded it, he could’ve done Glynn a favor.

-

Edward had been counting down the days, and finally it was time. He and James had spent all day moving Thomas into their house, making sure everything was set in his room. Edward was particularly… particular about everything. James supposed it was his nesting instincts kicking in. He laughed as Edward furiously fluffed the pillows and straightened the bed. “I think our work here is done,” James teased, “it’s going to get messed up anyway, it’s nearly time for Thomas to go to bed.”

Edward looked at the clock in disbelief. “Good grief, it’s almost ten!” Clutching his swollen stomach, Edward waddled out of the room and down the stairs, much to James’ amusement.

Edward’s heart filled with emotion as he helped Thomas change into his pajamas and tucked him into bed. He had dreamed of this for so long, and now he was finally living it. “Good night Thomas,” Edward said softly, stroking Thomas’ hair tenderly. “Tomorrow morning we can do whatever you’d like to do, just the two of us.”

Thomas smiled shyly, “I’d like that.”

Edward was about to turn out the light when he noticed Thomas’ expression change. “Is everything okay?”

Thomas hesitated. “I was wondering… what should I call you guys?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what do I _call_ you? You and James aren’t married, right? So technically, James isn’t one of my legal guardians. Should I just call him James?”

Edward laughed, “I’m sure he’ll be okay with that.”

“And…” Thomas’ voice grew quiet. “What do I call you?”

“Well.” Edward said, “what do you want to call me?”

Thomas’s face flushed. He pulled the covers so they came up to just under his nose. “Well, I kinda wanted...” he trailed off, voice muffled by the blankets. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

Edward smiled softly, stroking Thomas’ hair. “Just call me whatever you feel comfortable with. You can think about it for a bit, if you’d like.” He reached over and flipped the lights off.

“Dad!”

Edward paused in the doorway, turning back to face Thomas.

Thomas shrunk back under the covers again, poking his head out shyly. “I want to call you Dad. If that’s okay…”

Edward swelled with pride. “That’s more than okay.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Thomas squirmed back under the covers, burying his face in his pillow. “Good night, dad!”

“Good night, Thomas.”

As soon as the door was closed, Edward sunk to the floor, tears of joy running down his face.

-

The vibrating of his phone startled Gordon awake. With a grumble, he reached over for his phone. “Hello?”

_”I’m a terrible person. That’s all I’ll ever be. There’s no escaping-”_

“Henry?”

_”Yes, it’s me, I’m sorry for calling you this late but I don’t have anyone else to talk to and I just need to vent. It that okay with you?”_

“Of course it is, is everything all right?”

_”Physically, yes. Financially, yes. But I haven’t felt this awful about myself in a long time so, emotionally, no.”_

Gordon chuckled and sat up, leaning back against the headboard. “Okay, just tell me what happened so I can tell you that you’re not a terrible person.”

_”So I ran into some people I went to high school with back in New Jersey-”_

“Never a good thing.”

_”-and they all remembered me, but they remembered me because of how horrible I was. But they thought it was, like, cool, everything I did. They said they looked up to me because I was an asshole. It was weird. And then of course everything I ever did as a teenager came back to me all at once, and I relived my teenage years in a total of ten seconds and let me tell you, that is not fun…”_

“I’m sorry, can we back up a minute,” Gordon cut in. “I can’t imagine you being an asshole. What kind of stuff did you do?”

_”Don’t make me say it…”_

“Henry,” Gordon said sternly. He heard Henry sigh.

_”Fine. I was just a dick to everybody. I was an angry, hormonal, gay teenager fed up with everything and I let everybody know it. I once cussed out someone who stared at me in the hallway. He could’ve been checking me out for all I knew, but I assumed the worst and went off on him. I was just… not a nice person._

_“I hung out with a bunch of asshole gay kids and stoners too, and we just did a bunch of stupid shit. We skipped class, pranked teachers, all that fun stuff, but we also did some really stupid shit outside of school as well. We’d smoke and drink in parking lots until midnight, break into abandoned buildings, vandalize things… at first I only joined them to fit in, but over time I actually started enjoying myself. I only stopped once we got caught. I got into so much trouble my parents had to get involved.”_

“Jesus…” Gordon muttered under his breath.

_”My parents have always told me that we moved because of my mom’s job, but… I knew it was because of me. The timing is just too much of a coincidence. I felt terrible about it, and I worked hard to change who I was.”_ Henry scoffed, _”Glad to know it doesn’t even matter, there’s still too many people who know the real me.”_

“Hey, don’t say ‘the real you’ like who you are now isn’t real. So what if you went through a phase? That doesn’t cancel out who you are now. You’re kind, and strong, you know what you want and you go for it. You’re the most genuine person I’ve ever met.”

_”Thank you, but I had to work hard to get this way. If I hadn’t made an effort, I’d still be an asshole. That’s who I am at my core.”_

“Do you still have to work hard to be nice?”

_”...No.”_

“Then how do you know that _this_ isn’t the real you? What if who you were in high school and who you are now are both the real you?”

_”...This got a lot more existential than I anticipated.”_

Gordon laughed, “My point is that you’ve grown as a person. If who you are now comes naturally to you, then you don’t have to worry about all of this ‘real you’ nonsense.”

Henry hesitantly ‘hmph’d in agreement.

Gordon continued, “I know how it feels for your past to creep up on you sometimes, but don’t let that bother you. Focus on yourself now. That’s what’s important.”

For a moment Henry was silent, then he sighed. _“You’re right. Thanks for talking to me, I really needed it.”_

Gordon smiled, “Anytime.”

-

A week passed, and Edward grew to love Thomas more each day. His heart still jumped every time Thomas called him ‘dad’, and he never wanted to forget that feeling.

He had a talk with Thomas to explain his pregnancy, and how it was possible. He figured Thomas was old enough to know the basics, and Edward was pleased when he took in the information quickly, asking lots of curious questions.

“So… is the baby going to call you dad, too?”

“When they learn to talk, yes,” Edward chuckled. “What else would they-” He stopped with a yelp when he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen.

Thomas looked at him quizzically, “Was that another kick? Can I feel?”

Edward winced as another pain hit. “No, it wasn’t quite a kick…” Another stab of pain. “Thomas, could you bring me the phone? I think I should call James.”

Thomas’ face lit up with a mixture of panic and excitement. “Is the baby coming?”

“I think so,” Edward groaned.

Thomas excitedly ran off to find the phone.

With one hand gripping the table, Edward felt around his swollen stomach with the other hand. Nothing felt any different, and the pain definitely wasn’t the baby kicking. The thought of his labor starting now made Edward’s body go numb. He wasn’t ready, nothing was ready. He didn’t have a bag for the hospital, he didn’t have a name picked for the baby, he didn’t have James… Edward was suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.

Thomas suddenly came running back in with the phone, startling Edward out of his thoughts. “Here you go, I’ve already called him for you.”

Edward smiled gratefully, “Thank you, Thomas.” He picked up the phone, “James?”

_”So, a little bird named Thomas tells me you’re about to pop?”_

“Phrase it like that again and I’ll pop your head.”

_”Understood.”_

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Edward huffed, another pain shooting through his body, “I’m going to ask around and find someone to watch Thomas. The pain isn’t too bad yet, so I’m going to drive to the hospital. I need you to come by the house and pack our stuff, we could be at the hospital for a few days. When do you think you’ll be able to leave work?”

_”Well, Victor says we’re going to get pretty busy this evening, so it depends. I’m sure he’ll let me go once I explain to him what’s going on, but I feel bad leaving him with Kevin…”_

Edward took a deep breath. “James, I am having our baby today. I don’t care how incompetent Kevin is, Victor can deal with it. I _need_ you to come home and pack our stuff. Got it?”

_”Got it, dude. Hold it in until I get there, okay?”_

“I’ll… try.”


	7. Chapter 7

To his surprise, Henry received a call from Glynn the next morning. He excitedly told Henry he was happy to hire him, and he’d put him on the schedule right away. Overjoyed, Henry decided to head down to thank Glynn in person.

Henry hadn’t even taken two steps inside before colliding with someone. Nothing spilled, thankfully, but the stranger did drop some papers he was holding. “Oh my, I’m so sorry, I-I,” Henry stammered, kneeling down to help clean the papers from the floor. “Here, let me…” He trailed off when he looked up and saw a familiar face: Gordon’s brother.

Scot looked up at the same time, his face growing cold when he saw Henry. He hastily yanked the papers from Henry’s hands. Before Henry could say a word, Scot gave him a disgusted look and walked out.

“Wait!” Henry grabbed his coffee and hurried out the door after him. “Scot, please!”

Scot ignored him and kept walking.

Henry struggled to keep up with him, weaving between the crowd with hasty apologies. When he finally caught up to Scot, he grabbed him by the arm in an attempt to get his attention. “Please, you have to listen to me, I-”

Scot angrily turned around, yanking his arm out of Henry’s grasp, “Why should I listen to anything you have to say after what you’ve done to my brother?”

Henry’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“You broke him,” Scot continued, his voice low enough so he didn’t attract the attention of any bystanders. “He gave you all of his love and that wasn’t enough for you. What could you possibly have to say to me? What are you going to say to change my mind about what a horrible person you are?”

Henry laughed nervously, “I can’t argue with you on that…”

“You think this is funny?!” Scot fumed.

“No!”

“Then I suggest you start talking before I decide to walk away. I’ve got better things to do than stand here while you waste my time.”

Henry took a deep breath. “Okay,” he sighed, “I know you hate me. You have every right to. But you need to know that I never meant to hurt Gordon. I knew things weren’t going to be great for a while, but if I had known things would get so…”

“Jesus Christ…” Scot rolled his eyes. “I don’t care what your intentions were, what matters is your actions. You chose to walk out on Gordon, and that hurt him. You can stand here and tell me you meant well, but that doesn’t cancel out how your choices affected Gordon.”

Henry suddenly felt humiliated. He knew Scot was right, but he had spent months trying to convince himself otherwise. “I know,” he said softly. “You’re right. You’re right about everything, especially the way I treated Gordon.”

Scot huffed, “Is that it? Are we done here?”

Henry glared at Scot defiantly, “You’re wrong about one thing though. Choosing to leave Gordon when I did didn’t hurt him as much as it would’ve hurt him to get married so soon. If we had gone through with it, I wouldn’t have been happy, and it would’ve taken a toll on our relationship. Things between us could’ve gotten much worse. That’s what I was afraid would happen. That’s part of the reason I left. I did it for him just as much as I did it for myself.”

Scot’s gaze lowered to the sidewalk.

“I’ve never told Gordon. You and I both know he’d take it the wrong way.”

With a sharp laugh, Scot nodded in agreement.

Henry continued, “I want to make things right. I want-”

Scot’s head snapped up, “Things will never be made right. Not between you and I, and certainly not between you and Gordon. Not if I can help it. You better stay the hell away from my brother if you know what’s good for you.”

Henry’s arms crossed defensively. “Well it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?” he said with a huff.

One of Scot’s eyebrows twitched.

“He hasn’t told you, has he?”

Scot gave Henry a look of stern disbelief. “Told me what?” His voice radiated anger, “What’s there to tell?”

Suddenly, Henry regretted saying anything. He shifted around nervously, breaking eye contact. “We’re… we’re starting over, sort of. We’re seeing each other again.”

Scot’s silent stare didn’t make Henry feel any better. “How long?” Scot mumbled.

“...how long?”

“How long have you two been seeing each other?” Scot asked calmly.

Henry swallowed, unsure if he should say any more. “Not very long, about a week now-”

Scot stormed off before Henry could finish.

Henry didn’t go after him.

-

With nothing but the ticking clock on the wall keeping him company, Edward sat in the hospital bed finishing up his fourth crossword puzzle of the day. A nurse came in to check on him every half an hour to see how close he was to giving birth. Much to Edward’s dismay, it seemed that wasn’t going to be for a little while. On the other hand, it gave James more time to go home, pack everything, and meet him here, so Edward wasn’t about to complain too much.

When he finished the puzzle, he checked his phone, disappointed to find no new notifications. He had already received the obligatory congratulatory texts and videos from everybody.

Everybody, that is, except Henry.

Edward’s thumb hovered over the call button, but he stopped when he remembered their last interaction. Frankly, Edward wasn’t fond of the idea of speaking to Henry, but he knew that if he didn’t tell Henry about the baby, things between them would only get worse. He had to call him.

 _Assuming he even wants to speak to me_ , Edward thought. He set his phone down and started another crossword.

-

James rested his head on the steering wheel with a long groan. Of course on the most important day of his life so far, there had to be traffic. Leaning out the window, he saw nothing but cars, bumper to bumper and not moving an inch. “Fucking fantastic…”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing Edward’s number.

_”James? You’re calling me, what’s wrong?”_

“Well the sound of you not being in labor is a relief, because it’s going to be a while. Traffic.”

_”Oh no…”_

“Oh yeah.” With a scoff, he looked out the window again. Nothing had changed. “Complete standstill. The families in the two cars in front of me are sitting on the road playing poker. It’s that bad.”

_”I wish I had somebody to play poker with.”_

James’ heart sunk when he heard the loneliness in Edward’s voice. “You’re alone? Honey…”

_”It’s all right, really. Nobody could make it on such short notice, I’m not surprised.”_

“Nobody at all? Of all the people you reached out to, not a single one-”

_”James, we don’t know that many people. And I mean… it’s not like our families are going to be here.”_

James suddenly felt guilty for pushing the subject. “Let’s not think about that, why don’t you ask some people again if they’re sure they can’t make it. I don’t want you there all by yourself. You don’t deserve that.”

_”I’ll try.”_

As soon as Edward hung up, James dialed Henry’s number.

_”I’m surprised Edward is letting you talk to me. I’m sure you’ve heard about what happened-”_

“He’s in labor. Like, for real this time.”

_”Oh, wow…”_

“I’m stuck in a massive fuckload of traffic and no one else can make it to the hospital, so Edward is by himself for who knows how long.”

Henry was silent.

James huffed in aggravation, “Look, I don’t care what happened between you two, I don’t care if you hate him, whatever. I’m asking you to go to him because the thought of him being completely alone through this bothers me more than I can bear. Would you please just go to him? I know you’re four hours away but you’ll still get there before I will at this point.”

_”James, of course I’ll go to Edward, even after what’s happened between us. I’m just worried he won’t want me there.”_

“I want you there. And I’m sure Edward would appreciate you being there. Even if you two don’t speak a word, having someone there is better than Edward being by himself when he has this baby. Please, Henry.”

_”You called me at a good time, I’m actually on my way to Sodor now. I’ll probably be there in an hour or two at this rate.”_

James felt a wave of relief wash over him. “Thank you,” he said, “I really appreciate it.”

_”Don’t mention it. I’ll see you at the hospital.”_

James ended the called and dialed a third number.

_”Hello?”_

“Gordon, I know you and I aren’t particularly close but I have no one else to talk to and I feel like I’m about to have a breakdown.”

_”...I’m listening.”_

“So Edward’s in labor, which is way earlier than we had planned-”

_”Didn’t this happen once already?”_

“Yeah, this baby is an asshole. Anyway, I’m supposed to get our stuff and be at the hospital, like, right now, but I’m stuck in unbelievable traffic, and Edward is alone. He’s by himself, having a baby, and I’m missing it, and…” James’ voice cracked as he fought back tears, “I can’t believe I’m making this about me, but I just feel like a failure. I’m barely even a dad and I’ve already fucked up. I’ve let down Edward and our kid in one shot.”

_”First of all… are you sure there’s no one else you can talk to about this?”_

“Could you for once not be an asshole?”

_”I didn’t mean- Look, I just meant that… I’m not going to be much help to you. I don’t have any experience with this kind of stuff. If you want to vent to me that’s fine, but don’t expect any good advice from me.”_

James sniffed, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “No offense, but I know that. I guess I just need someone to talk to.”

_”If it makes you feel any better, you’re not a failure.”_

“Then why do I feel like one?” James chuckled weakly.

_”I don’t know. Because if I’m being honest with you, when I see you and Edward, I see the opposite of a failure. I see two people who make each other very happy, who always know how to solve their problems and never let anything get between them. You… you have what I want. You’re not a failure.”_

James felt tears gather in his eyes again. “Coming from you, that’s high praise.”

_”Consider yourself lucky.”_

-

Resisting the urge to throw the crossword puzzle book across the room took all of Edward’s self control. _’Hmph, ”expert difficulty” my ass…’_ he thought.

Now that he was unoccupied, Edward became extremely aware of the passing of time, and just how lonely he was. When he pictured this moment, he pictured being surrounded by his friends, chatting and laughing while they waited for the baby to arrive. He pictured flowers, balloons, and cards filling the room. He never pictured… this. An empty room with horrible fluorescent lighting and the tackiest wallpaper Edward had ever seen in his life.

Edward absentmindedly ran his hand over his stomach. _’You’re not going to be in there much longer, don’t get too comfy…’_

A knock on the door startled him. The nurses never knocked, so who could…? “Come in.”

The door creaked open, and Edward’s heart jumped when he saw Henry peek in and give an awkward wave. Edward didn’t say a word as he shut the door behind him.

Henry gave him a nervous smile and walked over. “James told me you were here by yourself.”

Edward swallowed the lump in his throat as he felt tears run down his face. Without saying a word he pulled Henry into a hug. He cried into Henry’s shoulder, clinging to his best friend like he’d never see him again. The two stayed like that for what seemed like hours until a sharp pain caused Edward to pull back and clutch his stomach. “Damn, you’d think this kid would be here by now with the way it’s carrying on in there. Feels like it’s trying to claw its way out.”

Henry laughed, then his smile faltered. “I’m sorry about what happened. I know you mean well, and-”

“Don’t,” Edward cut in, “I shouldn’t have worded things the way I did. I shouldn’t have said anything at all, really.”

“No, you were right and you should say it. You’ve always called me out on my bullshit, this time wasn’t any different. I deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t-” Edward stopped and took a deep breath, “Maybe we should discuss this later.”

Henry smiled, “Good idea.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a nurse barging into the room, flitting about happily as she checked Edward’s condition. “Well, looks like you’re about ready, Mr. Stewart!” She chirped.

Edward practically did a double take, processing what she said. “You mean…?”

“Yep, your baby is on its way!”

Edward turned to Henry, his eyes filled with fear. “Oh no. Oh, no no _no_ , this isn’t happening. This _can’t_ be happening, James isn’t here yet!” He turned back to the nurse, “I can’t do this without my boyfriend, can’t we wait?”

The nurse gave Edward an apologetic look, “I’m sorry, but I really need to take you to the-”

“Oh god,” Edward groaned, running a hand through his hair anxiously.

“If it makes you feel any better, you’re not going to be giving birth immediately, you still have a few minutes at least. We just need to move you so the doctors can get you ready.”

Shoulders slumping in defeat, Edward sighed, “I guess there’s nothing that can be done now…”

The nurse moved behind Edward’s bed, wheeling it toward the door. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure your boyfriend knows where to go when he gets here.” She turned to Henry, “If you’d just follow me, please.”

Henry’s eyes widened in surprise, “Wait, I’m- but I’m not, uh, I don’t-”

“Henry, if I can’t have James in the delivery room with me,” Edward huffed, brushing hair away from his sweaty forehead, “then the next best thing would be to have the Godfather with me.”

Henry felt a swell of joy, “You’re making me the Godfather?”

Edward gave a strained smile, “Of course I am. Now if you don’t mind, could we perhaps get to the-”

Suddenly, the door burst open and James nearly stumbled onto his face. “I’m here,” he panted, “don’t tell me you started without me!”

“You’re right on time, Mr. Hughes,” the nurse smiled, “your husband is about to give birth any minute now. We’re taking him to the delivery room now.”

Edward turned to Henry, “Looks like you lucked out. I’ll see you in a few hours

The nurse laughed, “More like a few minutes. You’re going to have a very quick birth, Mr. Stewart.”

Henry laughed as both Edward and James’ faces went pale. “See you in a few minutes, then.” He watched as the nurse wheeled Edward out the door, rambling on about how easy his birth was going to be, with James following after them.

-

“I’m going to kill that fucking nurse!” Edward screamed as another wave of pain shot through him. “I don’t care how nice she was to me, that bitch fucking _lied_!”

“Honey, you-” James winced as Edward gave his hand a painful squeeze.

Edward glared at James, “I don’t want to hear a god. Damn. Word. From. You!”

Gulping, James continued, “Edward, it’s only been half an hour, that’s pretty quick for-” He yelped as his hand was squeezed again.

“Your husband is right,” a doctor cut in, “you’re on track for a pretty quick birth. That won’t mean it’ll be painless, but it’ll be over before you know it. You’re very lucky, Mr. Stewart.”

Edward grumbled curses under his breath.

The doctor laughed, “I think we’re ready for another big push now, you’re nearly there.”

James’ hand remained in Edward’s harsh grip, the other brushing hair out of his face. Even when Edward was sweaty and exhausted, James couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He continued giving Edward encouragement as he strained, using every ounce of strength to push per the doctor’s instruction.

Just when Edward thought he’d pass out from exhaustion, the doctor chuckled, “I think we finally have your baby, just one more push and you'll be done.”

James heart stopped.

Edward pushed with a pained shout, and suddenly the sound of a baby crying filled the room, along with excited shouts from the doctors and nurses. Before Edward knew what was happening, he felt someone set the baby on top of his stomach. “Congratulations you two, it’s a boy!” a voice said.

Edward looked down at his newborn, all pink and wrinkly and crying his little lungs out. He felt a strong wave of love and protectiveness coursing through his body, and he picked up the baby in his arms.

Beside him, a nurse chuckled. “Don’t get too attached just yet, we still need to clean him and get his footprints for the birth certificate.”

Edward nodded, not taking his eyes off the wailing bundle in his arms.

James sat on the edge of the bed, cradling his son’s head in his hand. He gave Edward a gentle kiss on the forehead. “You did it,” he whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished this while I was drunk so my apologies in advance

The waiting area was just as poorly lit as the room Edward was in. Henry sat in the corner of the room, lazily cycling through all of his social media apps to pass the time. He was about to close twitter for the fourth time when something caught his eye. He saw his own face in a photo that looked like it was taken on the street back in london. Henry jerked upright, looking through the other photos in alarm. When were these taken, and why were they showing up on his twitter feed?

Scrolling through, he recognized the building he was standing in front of was the antique store down the road from Glynn’s coffee shop. He looked like he was in the middle of a conversation with someone, but the other person’s face was hidden in most of the photographs. Whoever was taking these pictures wasn’t trying to take a picture of whoever he was talking to, they were interested in Henry.

Henry felt his heart leap into his throat when he finally saw the person he was talking to. At the same time, he finally reached the headline of the article: “Scot Gresley caught in spat with secret lover?”

“Oh god…” Henry muttered.

Reading through the article, Henry felt the color drain from his face. The author kept referring to Henry as Scot’s “mystery man” and “secret lover”, making Henry feel sick. What if Scot saw this? What if _Gordon_ saw this?

After doing a little more digging, Henry found that the media had been harassing Scot about a secret love affair for months now after something he said during an interview got twisted out of proportion. That didn’t make Henry feel any better, though. He knew he needed to let Gordon know what happened, and fast.

-

Edward felt content. Holding the baby in his arms, he watched as James rummaged through their bags across the room. “What are you looking for?”

“I could’ve sworn I packed it…” James mumbled.

“Packed what?” Edward laughed. He absentmindedly played with the baby’s hair as James continued digging.

“Got it!” James pulled something out of the bag, holding it behind his back as he crossed the room. He stood beside Edward and held out a hand. “Could I borrow this for a second?”

“...the baby?”

“Yeah.”

Edward blinked in shock. “What are you-?”

“Please? I promise I’ll give him back.”

Reluctantly, Edward handed the baby over to James, giving him a suspicious look.

With uncharacteristic gentleness, James took the baby and whatever was behind his back, walking back to the other side of the room. “Remember when you were stressed out about picking a name, and you told me you’d be okay with me picking it for you?”

“...no.”

James sighed, “Well, trust me, you did. And since we haven’t even talked about a name since then, I figured I’d take you up on what you said.” He walked back over to Edward, holding the baby in a purple blanket with something embroidered in the corner. “So I picked out a name, and had it put on this blanket.”

Edward picked up the corner on the blanket and gasped, smiling up at James. “It’s perfect,” he whispered.

Suddenly, an idea flew into Edward’s mind. “Could you hand me that bag over there?”

Giving Edward a quizzical look, James grabbed the large tote bag and set it down in Edward’s lap. He watched as Edward rummaged around, pulling something out that he held in his fist. “What’re you doing?” James asked.

“Something that should’ve been done a long time ago.” Edward gestured for James to hold out his hand, dropping a silver ring onto his palm.

James stared at the ring, unable to form words.

Edward chuckled, “I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to marry you. Life has been so hectic lately that I felt like I never had time to ask you. I thought there wasn’t any way we could juggle our family, moving into a house, and planning a wedding all at once, but then I realized that no matter what life throws at us, we can handle it together. So, James Hughes, will you-”

“Hold that thought.”

Edward watched James as he dug around in his back pocket, pulling out a gold ring and holding it in front of Edward. He took Edward’s hand and slipped it on his finger. “Sorry, it’s just… I always wanted to be the one to ask.”

Edward laughed, “You didn’t even ask me!”

“Shit, knew I forgot something.”

Tears streamed down Edward’s cheeks as he pulled James into a heartfelt kiss.

-

Henry was still investigating, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was completely oblivious to the photos being taken, when a familiar voice jolted him back to reality. Jerking his head up in surprise, he saw Gordon, with Thomas beside him. “You’re here!”

Thomas’ face lit up, “You’re Henry, aren’t you?”

Henry smiled and nodded, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Edward and James have told me so much about you!”

“They told me about you too,” Thomas said, “I didn’t think you’d be so tall…”

Gordon snorted, “It’s not your fault you’ve been adopted by such short people.”

“Gordon!” Henry laughed, turning back to Thomas. “Would you like me to take you to their room?”

Thomas gave Henry a dismissive wave. “No thanks, I think I can handle it,” he smirked, walking down the hall and around the corner.

“Cheeky little asshole,” Gordon chuckled, “I like him.”

Henry giggled, then became serious. “I need to talk to you about something before we go see them. It’ll give them a few minutes alone as a family, anyway.”

Gordon sat down in the empty chair beside Henry.

Taking a deep breath, Henry looked around, thankful that the waiting area was empty except for the two of them. “I need to explain something to you, because if you were to hear about this from someone else, it would look really bad. Like, really _really_ bad-”

Gordon gave Henry a stern look. “Go on.”

“Well,” Henry gulped, “I’ll start by saying that it’s not what it looks like. It’s the opposite of what it looks like, actually. I was trying to apologize to him about what happened and things got kind of heated and _god damn it that makes it sound worse_ -”

“It’s about those photos of you and my brother, isn’t it?”

Henry blinked. “How did you-”

“When Scot so much as sneezes it’s all Buzzfeed can talk about for a week. Arguing on the street with a man nobody has seen him interact with before but seems to be very familiar with? Scandalous.” Gordon smirked.

Henry smacked Gordon’s arm. “You prick! You let me freak out and monologue-”

Gordon laughed, leaning back in his chair and resting his head against the wall. “It’s the little things that entertain me.”

Henry glared at him, arms crossed. He slumped back against the wall, grumbling under his breath. _Of all the dirty, rotten…_

“This stuff happens a lot, though. It’s part of the reason I try not to hang around my brother, especially in public.”

Henry’s expression softened, “Really?”

“Sometimes I feel bad for Scot, but then again, he signed up for all of this when he decided to go from being a famous athlete to a famous actor. A ridiculous decision, really…”

“Woah, time out,” Henry sat up, turning in his seat to face Gordon, “I didn’t know Scot was an actor!”

Gordon nodded, “As of last year, yes.”

“What movies has he been in?”

“Beats me.”

“Gordon!”

“What?”

Henry stared at Gordon, “You don’t know your own brother’s movies? You haven’t seen his work?”

Gordon scoffed, “Work, that’s a good one.”

“Hey,” Henry frowned, “I’ve done theater, acting is serious business, and it _is_ work.”

“Not for him. He’s just coasting on the fame his athletic career brought him. He’s doing whatever his agent tells him to do, whatever gets him the most retweets and followers. That’s not work, that’s selling yourself out.”

Gordon’s words stung Henry. How could he talk about his brother so coldly? “I may not know the first thing about what it takes to be famous, but I do know a thing or two about what it feels like to live your life just to please other people. It’s awful. I certainly hope you’re wrong about your brother, because no one deserves to know what that feels like. Whether you give yourself up for one person or one million, it still sucks.” Henry turned away from Gordon, leaning against the wall again. “I think you’re jealous.”

Gordon’s head jerked up, “I am _not_ jealous. Why would I be jealous of someone who spends his time flounting about in front of cameras like a show dog. You couldn’t pay me enough to-”

“I didn’t say you were jealous of Scot.”

Gordon’s mouth hung open as he thought.

“You’re jealous of everyone he gives his attention to. You want him to spend more time with you. That’s why you hate what he does, you can’t stand to watch him give his attention to the whole world while putting you on the back burner.”

Gordon remained silent, eyes fixed on the floor.

“Is that true?”

Gordon huffed in annoyance. “It was.”

“What do you mean?” Henry asked.

“When I was young and Scot started out as an athlete, I hated not getting to spend time with him like I always had. Once he started setting records and getting recognized by newspapers and magazines, I knew things would be different. I followed in his footsteps just to try and stay close to him. He was so proud of me, and I loved it, until he started using me…”

Henry looked at Gordon in concern, “What do you mean?”

Gordon suddenly cleared his throat, turning away, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh,” Henry sank back against the wall, “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“N-no, it’s fine, I just… we’ll talk about it later. Now’s not the time.”

Henry nodded.

-

A couple minutes later, James sent a text to Henry and Gordon, inviting them inside to meet the baby. As soon as they came in, Edward excitedly flashed his ring, causing Henry to run over and pull him into a hug, congratulating the two. Finally, Henry pulled back, “Now, show me the baby.”

“Of course,” Edward motioned over to James, who had the baby bundled in his arms. “We finally picked a name, too. Well, James picked the name.”

Henry’s face lit up, “Really? What did you pick?”

“Well,” James looked down at the baby, “I was going through a list of names online, and I wanted one that had a meaning, so I looked at names that meant ‘lucky’ and-”

“His name is Felix!” Thomas blurted out.

Edward laughed, and James rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, I was creating suspense!”

“They’ve waited long enough already, cut them some slack,” Thomas shrugged.

As James and Thomas continued their playful bickering, Henry noticed that Gordon had hardly moved from the corner of the room. He walked over to him and took him by the arm. “Come on,” he said happily, “it’s your turn to meet the baby-”

Gordon leaned away, taking a step back. “I don’t think I should,” he whispered.

Henry’s smile fell, “What’s the matter? Are you sick?”

“No, it’s just…” Gordon sighed, “I’m not good with children, especially babies.”

“But you said you liked Thomas, and he’s a kid.” Henry’s expression softened, “Come on, you don’t have to hold him, but if you want to, I can show you how.” He led Gordon over to where James stood holding a cooing Felix. “Oh, listen to him!” Henry beamed.

Gordon hoped his smile was convincing.

James passed Felix into Henry’s arms, and he leaned over to show Gordon, who looked hesitant.

“You don’t have to hold him, Gordon,” Edward said with a smile.

Gordon gave Edward a grateful look.

“Fine then,” Henry pouted, “more for me then.” He looked down at Felix, playing with the tufts of hair sticking out of his head. “He’s beautiful, you guys did a good job.”

James gave Edward’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, I think so too.”

Henry continued, “Oh, look at his little fingers! I might have to take you home with me, won’t I?”

“I take it you like children?” Edward laughed.

“Oh yes, I love children. Especially babies.”

 _Oh boy,_ Gordon thought.

Henry continued, “I used to babysit for my neighbors my senior year of high school. Best job I’ve ever had. I could hang around children all day, every day.”

“Do you want your own kids someday?”

“Definitely.”

Gordon looked up and saw James giving him a smug grin. _Ohhh, boy…_ Gordon thought again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still drunk so my apologies again ahaha probably shouldn't have uploaded this yet oh well what can you do


	9. Chapter 9

When Edward was given the all clear to go home, everyone left the hospital, and Henry and Gordon said their goodbyes to the new family. Gordon was about to say goodbye to Henry when he cut him off. “Would you like to come spend a few days at my place? I’ve crashed at your place so much I feel awful for not returning the favor. I can show you around London too, if you’d like.”

Gordon’s brow cocked in suspicion. “I thought you were coming to Sodor for a reason?”

“Yes, well,” Henry stammered, “I really just… I wanted to see you. I felt so weird after talking to your brother, like I just really wanted to see you for some reason.”

Digging in his pocket for his keys, Gordon thought for a moment. “Sure,” he agreed hesitantly, “I’ll have to ask off work a few days and pack some things, would we be leaving today?”

“I was hoping to.”

“Did you drive here?”

“No, I took a Lyft here since I don’t have my car.”

“That reminds me… how _do_ you go from London to Sodor?” Gordon asked, finally pulling out his keys and walking over to his car, Henry following behind him.

“There’s a ferry that crosses over here. I never have my car while I’m here so I either rent one or find a ride everywhere.”

“Really?” Gordon gave Henry a look of pity, “That sounds like a hassle.”

Henry shrugged, “It’s motivation for me to just move back here as soon as possible.”

Gordon gasped in mock offense, “You mean I’m not enough for you? You wound me, Henry.”

Rolling his eyes, Henry got into Gordon’s car and they drove off to Gordon’s apartment.

-

Scot grumbled as his fifth call to Gordon went unanswered. He tossed his phone onto the makeup table in front of him.

“If you don’t stay still I’m going to give you a comb-over,” the woman beside him grumbled, pointing the comb at him threateningly. “What’s so important it can’t wait until after the interview?”

“My brother, avoiding me as usual.”

The woman gave a ‘hmph’ in understanding. 

“Do you have any siblings?” Scot asked.

The woman nodded.

“My condolences.”

She laughed, “I have a younger sister. Usually it’s me who doesn’t answer her calls, though. Now I can see what it does to her.”

“It’s going to drive me insane.”

“Your brother probably doesn’t realize how worried you are. If he did, I’m sure he’d pick up.”

Scot snorted, “This isn’t because I’m worried about him, this is about him having a lot of explaining to do.”

The woman laughed, brushing Scot’s hair away from his face and coating it with a liberal amount of hairspray. “If it makes you feel better, maybe he’s not avoiding you on purpose. Maybe you’re calling him at a bad time.”

“And the other times I’ve called him?”

“Not my business,” the woman shrugged.

Scot sighed. _All of this stress is going to make my hair turn gray like Gordon’s…_ he thought.

-

“Talk to him, Gordon.”

“Nope.” Gordon tossed another shirt into his suitcase.

Henry picked up the shirt and folded it before putting it back in the suitcase. “He’s called you five times now, what if something is really wrong? You’re going to have to talk to him sooner or later, you know.” He folded the next shirt Gordon threw into the suitcase as well.

“I’ve ignored him before, I can keep ignoring him a little longer.”

Henry sighed, “Well, you shouldn’t. The longer you keep your distance the worse the situation looks to him. Just call him, how bad can it be?”

Gordon walked over and dumped an armful of socks onto the bed next to the suitcase. He watched as Henry picked up a pair and folded them. “Why are you-?” Gordon looked into the suitcase and saw the neatly folded clothes. He leaned forward and gave Henry an appreciative kiss on the forehead.

Henry gave a happy hum.

Gordon smirked, “I’m not going to call him.” He grabbed the suitcase and walked out into the living room.

Henry groaned, “Oh come on, why don’t you want to tell him about us? Is it really that embarrassing that you’re seeing me again?”

Gordon stopped, turning to look at Henry, “You think I’m embarrassed by you?”

“It certainly looks like it.”

“Henry,” Gordon’s voice lowered, “I never have been and never will be embarrassed to be with you. I love having you with me, and I want to show you off to everyone. You mean the world to me.”

Henry crossed his arms, “Then why aren’t you showing me off to Scot?”

Continuing into the living room, Gordon rolled his eyes. “Believe me, I want nothing more than to show you off to Scot. The problem isn’t you, it’s him.”

Henry sat down on the couch. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Gordon huffed as he set down his suitcase, sitting down beside Henry, “I don’t want to deal with his reaction when I tell him we’re seeing each other again. Judging by what he’s said to me, he won’t be happy.”

Henry looked away guiltily. “About that…”

Gordon frowned, “...what?”

“He, uh… he already knows. That’s probably why he keeps calling you.”

Gordon didn’t say anything. He took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair.

Henry continued, “You know those pictures of us? When those were taken we were talking about you. Well, not _you_ specifically, I was trying to apologize to him about everything that happened, and then he told me to stay away from you-”

“Oh god…”

“-so I told him it was a bit late for that, and of course he asked why, so I told him.”

Gordon sighed, “Okay, this is a problem.”

“Why?”

“Because he heard it from you, and not from me. That’s going to be the first problem. The second problem is the fact that we’re even getting within ten feet of each other. All he did after you and I broke up was warn me that getting involved with you again, even as friends, wasn’t a good idea. He and I actually became close again, sort of. He was protective of me like he used to be, talking to me and helping me through it all. It was… nice. I’m sure he feels betrayed, now that I’ve essentially ignored everything he told me.”

Henry’s eyes lowered to the floor, “I’m the one who pushed you to do this, he’s going to hate me…”

“He’s not going to hate you,” Gordon put his hand on Henry’s arm comfortingly, “and you didn’t push anything. We both went into this willingly.”

“I still hate the fact that Scot is so upset about this.”

“Well, he didn’t want us to even be friends, and that was always going to be out of the question, so he was going to be disappointed anyway. He’ll just have to deal with us getting close again. That’s his problem, not ours.”

“He would _not_ be happy to find out just how close we’ve gotten…”

Gordon smirked, “Dirty.”

“You know I didn’t mean it that way, you pervert.” Henry laughed, standing up and heading towards the door. “Come on, let’s get going. We can deal with the Scot issues later.”

“Someone’s in a hurry to leave,” Gordon chuckled.

Henry gave Gordon a suggestive smirk, “The sooner we get back to my place, the sooner we can get within ten feet of each other again.”

-

A couple hours after arriving in London, Henry decided to take Gordon to Glynn’s coffee shop. He wanted to show him his favorite spot as well as new place of work. Excitedly, he dragged Gordon through the doors by the arm. “You go pick out a table, I’ll order something for us.”

“But I don’t like-”

“Trust me, I know something you’re going to love.” Henry shooed Gordon away with a wave of his arm. He walked up to the counter to order and was pleased to see Glynn standing there, smiling at him. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Coffeepot himself,” Henry teased.

Glynn chuckled, “So you’ve finally stopped coming here alone?”

Henry could feel his face turn red, “O-oh, him? That’s Gordon, he’s my-” Henry paused, “...he’s my friend.” He mentally slapped himself.

“Friend?” Glynn cocked a bushy brow inquisitively.

Henry shifted nervously, “Maybe…?”

“Nevermind then, what can I get for you?”

-

“Don’t look at the receipt, just drink it.”

Gordon eyed the cup in Henry’s hand suspiciously. “If this has an ungodly amount of sugar and syrup in it I’m going to sue you.”

“Oh, just take it, you big baby.” Henry set the cup down in front of Gordon, taking a swig of his own coffee.

Gordon hesitantly sipped the drink, his eyes lighting up in surprise. “Is this hot chocolate?”

Henry nodded excitedly, “I know you don’t like your coffee super sweet, so that hot chocolate is probably the only thing you’d like here. You’re the only person in the world who likes hot chocolate as bitter as Glynn’s…”

“I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t have defective taste buds.” Gordon rolled his eyes, taking another drink. “So, you’re working here now?”

Henry nodded again, “Starting next week.”

“I guess your museum job is kaputz then?”

“Looks like it. But the good news is it’ll be easier to leave this job once my lease is up and I can move back to Sodor.”

Gordon’s expression changed, suddenly becoming more serious. “Speaking of moving back… I don’t know if you’ve already made plans for where you’re going to live yet, but I want you to know that you’re always welcome to move back in with me, if you’d like.”

Gordon’s words caught Henry completely off guard. He fumbled over his words, “Oh, I-I uh, I don’t think-”

“I understand if you don’t want to,” Gordon continued, “but if something were to happen and you need somewhere to stay, my place is always open for you.”

Henry took a nervous breath, “Thank you, I really appreciate it, but… I don’t think living together would be the best idea right now.”

Gordon was silent for a moment. “Of course, you’re right. But even if you need to stay for one night, don’t hesitate to come over.”

“Definitely.” Henry felt a twinge of guilt. He could tell how much Gordon wanted him to stay at his place, and Henry wanted to as well, but he knew it wouldn’t likely end well, especially if they were taking things slow. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Don’t be sorry,” Gordon said, “I didn’t expect you to say yes anyway, I just thought I would make an offer, you know, just in case.”

Henry nodded, taking a long sip of his coffee. A long, awkward string of silence hung in the air.

“So,” Gordon cleared his throat, “I promised you we would talk about something.”

Henry’s brow furrowed, “You did?”

“Remember? Back at the hospital?” Gordon lowered his voice, “When we were talking about Scot?”

“Oh! Yes, I remember now. You said he used you?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Okay, what are we talking, here? Should I… should I call the police, or…?”

Gordon chuckled, “No, don’t worry, it wasn’t anything illegal. He just…” Gordon’s tone grew serious again, “he let fame get to his head, and he used me as a prop to make himself look better. Ever since I was a little kid. He’d tell people how I’m going to be just like him when I grew up, he’d take me with him to photo shoots, he’d-”

“Wait,” Henry cut him off, “you’re telling me that somewhere out there exists photos of you as a little kid?”

“Yes,” Gordon sighed, “unfortunately. Put down the phone, I’ll show you some when we get back to your place tonight.”

Sheepishly, Henry slid his phone back into his pocket. “You better.”

“Anyways, he did it to the point where it caused some conflict between us, since he expected me to go to college on an athletic scholarship like he did, and I didn’t want to. We had an argument, and I cut ties with him and lived on my own for three years.”

Henry’s eyes went wide, “Three years? Wait, that means-”

“I didn’t have contact with him again until just after we met.”

Stunned, Henry took a moment to process the information. “Wow… I mean, you told me that you guys weren’t exactly close, but I just thought… woah, three years?”

Gordon nodded. “Got along just fine without him.”

“What made you guys start talking again?”

Gordon hesitated, contemplating his answer. “You,” he said quietly.

Henry was silent for a moment, before he laughed loudly. “Oh come on, be serious.”

“I am being serious.”

‘… _oh,_ ’ Henry thought. “Wh… what do you mean?”

“Well, I couldn’t stop thinking about you for the rest of the day, and it made me remember all the times Scot and I used to talk about silly crushes and stuff…” Gordon’s face started to flush, “I figured three years had been long enough, so I called him.”

Henry grinned, “And you told him about me?”

Gordon looked away in embarrassment, nodding.

Giggling, Henry reached across the table and took Gordon’s hand in his own. “That’s so sweet, Gordon.”

Face turning even redder, Gordon grumbled under his breath.

“You’re such a softie, and you know it,” Henry laughed. “Come on, let’s go back to my place and finish unpacking your stuff. Then you have some pictures to show me.” Henry linked his arm with Gordon’s as they headed out the door. He gave Glynn a wave goodbye on their way out.

Glynn waved back with a chuckle. “Friend, huh?” He called out.

Henry shot him a playful glare.


	10. Chapter 10

That evening, after an entire humiliating hour and a half of showing Henry the photos of he and Scot like he promised, he finished unpacking his stuff while Henry was in the shower. Not even five minutes had passed when Gordon heard Henry’s phone jingle.

Then it jingled again.

And again.

Gordon decided to check and see if it was anything important, and was surprised to see a slew of notifications. Someone with the name “Puffball10” had followed Henry on Instagram, as well as Twitter and Snapchat. Another Instagram notification came in that said “Hey,” from the same name. Following quickly was another string of notifications that Puffball10 had liked several of Henry’s photos.

Chuckling to himself, Gordon set the phone back down and resumed unpacking. Henry was far more active on social media than Gordon was, he must deal with messages like these every day. But as Henry’s phone continued to go off, Gordon started to feel uneasy. Was this normal? If so, he couldn’t imagine dealing with this many messages every day.

Finally, Gordon heard Henry walk into the room behind him. “Your phone was going off like crazy while you were in there,” Gordon said.

“Really? That’s odd. Was it my parents?” Henry asked as he picked up his phone.

“No, it was just someone following you and messaging you, nothing to be alarmed about.” When he didn’t get a response from Henry, Gordon turned around and saw him sitting on the bed, staring at his phone with a look of horror on his face. “Everything all right?”

Henry didn’t answer. He looked like he was about to faint, and Gordon walked over and sat down beside him. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Henry snapped back to attention. “It’s… this is Diesel 10. He’s trying to contact me again…”

Gordon’s heart dropped. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and he never chooses a good username. It’s always something I recognize. It’s like he wants me to know it’s him…” Henry went through and quickly blocked him, deleting the messages as well.

Gordon could see Henry’s body shaking. “This happens regularly?” Gordon asked.

Henry nodded.

“Isn’t he in jail?”

“No,” Henry shook his head sadly, “he was bailed out.”

“Son of a bitch,” Gordon growled, “Have you tried getting the police involved?”

Henry nodded again, “There’s nothing they can do about it unless I have enough solid proof that it’s him, which I don’t.”

Gordon angrily sat in though, trying to come up with something they could do about the situation. “Well, let’s just hope he eventually gives up. He can’t do this forever.”

-

The next morning, after some more pestering from Henry, Gordon decided to call Scot. Everything in Gordon’s mind was screaming at him, reminding him how much he didn’t want to do this, but he decided he might as well do it now. That, and the fact that Henry threatened to make Gordon sleep on the couch if he didn’t was motivation enough.

Henry left to go get them some coffee from Glynn’s, giving Gordon some privacy. With a long groan, he dialed his brother’s number.

_“So, you finally decide to call me when I’m busy filming in Barcelona? Typical.”_

“How was I supposed to know you were-? Listen, you wanted to talk, so we’ll talk. If your schedule allows you to confront my boyfriend in the street and then call me nonstop, then surely you have enough time for us to talk about this.”

Gordon could practically hear Scot roll his eyes, _”I wasn’t the one who started that, Henry was.”_

“Are you four?” Gordon asked angrily, “I don’t care who started it, what I care about is why you were so insistent to talk to me. What could you possibly have to say about all of this that I’d want to hear?”

_”Well, I just wanted to hear it from you. Is it true that you two are back together?”_

“Yes, we are. I know you were so dead set on me never seeing Henry again, so go on, let out your anger now. I’m ready, let’s hear it.”

 _”Gordon,”_ Scot sighed, _”I’m not angry. I’m not even surprised. After everything I told you, all the warnings I gave you, you still decided to go and pursue a relationship with him. I’m disappointed, but not angry.”_

Gordon rolled his eyes, “Well, tough luck. I’m dating Henry again, and you’re going to have to deal with it. That means not acting like a dick to him, not making and snide comments about him, and not talking about us during interviews, meetings, anything of the sort.”

_”I, uh, don’t know what you’re-”_

“Someone published a Buzzfeed article about what you said between takes when you were filming. You said, and I quote, ‘At least you’re not a doormat like my brother.’”

_”Oh, that was taken out of context.”_

“Scot, I don’t know how many times I’ve had to ask you to leave me out of your public life, but I don’t want to have to ask again. Stop talking about private matters with other people.”

Scot said nothing.

“And another thing,” Gordon continued, “I know you’ve invited me to spend Christmas with you, but now I was hoping on bringing Henry with me. I’m asking your permission, I wouldn’t just bring him without your knowledge.”

 _”...that’s fine,”_ Scot said hesitantly.

“Good. Now, I don’t want to hear one single word, not one passive aggressive comment about Henry while we’re there. I want you to treat him just like you treated him before. And if I catch you acting like a dick, so help me, I’ll make you regret it.”

_”I’m supposed to act like he didn’t completely betray you when you opened your heart to him?”_

Gordon was growing furious. “Yes, you’re supposed to act like that, because that’s not what happened. If I can forgive Henry for what happened, why can’t you?”

_”Well, excuse me for not liking the sight of my brother running back to the man who’s already hurt him once before, and for fearing it will just happen again.”_

“You know what, Scot? You’re just going to have to sit there and take it, because Henry’s not going away anytime soon. I’m spending the rest of my life with Henry, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Gordon tensed when he heard Scot laugh, _“Careful brother, remember what happened last time you assumed he’d always be there for you?”_

“Go to hell!” Gordon shouted as he hung up. He heard the door shut and looked over to see Henry holding two cups, a shocked expression on his face. Gordon looked away. “It didn’t go well,” he grumbled.

-

That afternoon, Henry wanted to try and cheer Gordon up, so he decided to show him his favorite park down the street. “Gordon, for goodness sake, put on a scarf! It’s cold outside today!”

“Oh, hush,” Gordon grumbled, “I’ll be fine.”

Henry pouted, “Fine, freeze to death. I don’t care.” He opened the door and led Gordon down the stairs. When they got to the sidewalk, Henry suddenly stopped. “Wait, I forgot something, I’ll be right back!”

As Gordon stood and waited, he looked around at some of the buildings. Henry didn’t live in the nicest neighborhood, but it was pretty to look at nonetheless. Gordon watched some of the people as they passed by, when someone caught his eye. Across the street, standing in a small alleyway between two buildings, someone stood watching him. Gordon panicked when he recognized the face: it was Diesel 10.

“Okay, we can go now!”

Henry’s voice suddenly behind him made Gordon jump. “Yeah,” he said, his voice a bit squeakier than he intended, “let’s go.” He put his arm around Henry protectively as they walked away, the feeling of being watched creeping up Gordon’s spine.

Soon, Gordon forgot about the encounter. He focused entirely on Henry, watching in amusement as Henry rambled on about the various trees and wildlife that inhabited the park. Gordon enjoyed seeing Henry so happy.

A couple hours later, thoughts of Diesel 10 snuck back into his mind as they walked back home. Gordon put his arm around Henry again, and as they got closer to Henry’s apartment, Gordon found himself looking around anxiously.

Sure enough, Diesel 10 stood there waiting, still in the same spot as before.

Gordon flinched when they made eye contact, but held it defiantly before he and Henry walked up the stairs and out of sight.

As Henry put the key in the lock, he paused. “Oh, I guess I forgot to lock up…” He turned the doorknob and opened the door.

Gordon felt panic rise in his throat. “Henry, do you know how dangerous that is? Someone could just walk in and do who knows what!”

“Gordon, calm down, I always keep the door locked, I guess I just forgot this time. I’ve never forgotten it before, it’s not like it’s a common problem for me.”

Henry’s words did little to calm Gordon’s feeling of unease.

-

Henry stirred awake, checking the clock. _Almost one in the morning…_ He rolled over and was surprised to find the bed empty beside him. He looked around and saw Gordon standing over by the window. “Gordon?” he said quietly, “What are you doing?”

Gordon flinched, startled by Henry speaking so suddenly. “Oh, uh, I couldn’t sleep.”

“Gordon, I’m gonna be honest, you’re freaking me out here. You nearly had a heart attack when I forgot to lock my door, you’re looking out my widow in the middle of the night… what’s going on?”

Gordon took a deep breath, still looking out the window. “I don’t want to scare you-”

“A bit late for that.”

“-but there’s something you should know-”

“You’re batman!” Henry said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Henry! Focus!” Gordon lowered his voice again, “Promise me you won’t freak out, okay?”

“I only promise to try.”

Gordon sighed, “Okay then. Earlier, when we left the apartment to go to the park, I saw… I saw Diesel 10 standing across the street. I saw him again when we got back. That’s why I freaked out about you not locking your door. For all we know, he could be standing there every day, and I just happened to notice him today. I don’t want to scare you, but I have a feeling he’s going to someday grow the balls to graduate from just watching you to… something worse.”

Henry’s face was pale. He didn’t speak a word.

Gordon walked over to the bed, settling in beside Henry and pulling him close. “Judging by the way he desperately tries to follow you on social media, I’d say he’s-”

“Can we stop talking about this? Please?” Henry’s voice was weak, and it broke Gordon’s heart hearing it.

“Henry, we can’t just ignore this. Wouldn’t you rather know, and be able to stay safe, than to have something suddenly happen out of the blue?”

Henry wrapped his arms around Gordon and buried his face in Gordon’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Gordon said softly, “I knew this would scare you, but I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t say anything and you ended up… if something happened…” He lovingly stroked Henry’s hair as he spoke, “Maybe you should come back to Sodor now…”

“Gordon, it’s only November, and I’m not scheduled to move out until March. Ending a lease early is a very tedious process-”

“I don’t care,” Gordon cut in, “I’ll do everything for you. I’ll take care of all of it if it means you’ll be safe.”

“B-but, I,” Henry sat up, giving Gordon a look of concern, “I just started a new job-”

“I don’t care. I’ll go down there and explain everything to Glynn tomorrow, I’m sure he’d understand.”

“Gordon, this really isn’t a big deal-”

“You’re being _stalked_ , Henry! This asshole abused you, pointed a gun at you, tried to drag you off to who knows where… I don’t want to think about what he could do if you’re here, alone, and you forget to lock your door again. I can’t let you take that chance. You’re coming back to Sodor.”

Gordon’s words seemed to take Henry by surprise. He slumped against the headboard, staring blankly in thought. “I guess…”

“I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve any of this.” Gordon leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Henry’s cheek, “Let’s go back to sleep.”

-

Memories of what happened the night before hit Henry like a brick wall when he woke up the next morning. As the day went on, Henry thought more about it. Gordon had started making plans for packing and moving Henry’s things as soon as he woke up. Henry merely watched, as Gordon had volunteered to do most of the work as not to stress Henry out.

As Gordon finished making a checklist of the items in Henry’s closet, Henry walked over to the window Gordon had stood at the night before. He looked out onto the street. No sign of Diesel 10. Henry gave a deep breath. “This isn’t fair,” he said to no one in particular.

“Pardon?” Gordon called from inside the closet, his voice muffled.

“I said this isn’t fucking fair!” Henry shouted, not looking away from the window. “Why can’t he just leave me alone already? I’m so sick of having to deal with this, and having to walk on eggshells just to stay away from him.” Henry ran a shaky hand through his hair as tears threatened to form in is eyes. “I finally feel safe and relaxed, and he just waltzes in here and fucks it up. Why?”

Gordon emerged from the closet, worry etched on his face. Seeing Henry in a state of panic made Gordon’s heart drop. He walked over and pulled Henry into a hug, wrapping his arms around Henry’s shaking body.

Henry sniffed, burying his head in Gordon’ shoulder, “Am I going to feel like I’m being hunted for the rest of my life?”

Stroking Henry’s hair, Gordon leaned his head against Henry’s. “No,” he said quietly, “I’ll make sure you don’t.”

-

“To make a long story short, I’m going to be living in Sodor again before the end of the week. So if you ever need a babysitter, I’ll happily drop by anytime you need me.”

_“As glad as I am to have you back, I’m so sorry that the circumstances are… less than ideal.”_

“You and me both.”

_“But I’m glad you’re safe. I thought our Diesel 10 days were long over.”_

“Again, you and me both.”

_”So, what are you and Gordon doing now?”_

“Well,” Henry sighed, “we’re trying to pack up as much of my things as we can. Gordon keeps going over to the window every ten seconds, and we’re trying to figure out how to get my stuff out without making it obvious what’s going on. Gordon doesn’t want him to come searching for me.”

_”You seem… awfully calm about all of this.”_

“Gordon is doing all of the panicking for me, so I’m not too stressed about that.” Henry paused. “And I’m done feeling scared. I don’t want to feel the way I did before, I like not being afraid all the time.”

_“Well, why don’t you come over as soon as you get back? You’re overdue for a visit to your godson, maybe that can distract you a little bit.”_

Henry smiled, “I’d like that.”

 _”Tell Gordon he still doesn’t have to hold the baby, and he’s welcome to come too if he’d like,”_ Edward laughed.

“I’ll let him know.”

-

Edward paced around the house, holding a finally sleeping Felix in his arms. He could hear James on the phone downstairs, talking to Henry. Edward walked down the stairs, treading lightly so he wouldn’t jostle Felix awake. He sat beside James on the armrest of the couch. “Are they back yet?” Edward asked.

James nodded, “They’re taking the first load of boxes up to Gordon’s apartment now.”

Edward gave him a thumbs up as he went back to talking to Henry.

“So, how long do you think you’re going to be staying with… wait, what?”

Edward saw James’ smile fade.

“What are the police doing there?”

Panicked, Edward gave James a ‘what’s going on?’ look.

James put the phone on speaker. Henry’s nervous voice filled the room. _”-said there were reports of a break-in from several neighbors, they said it happened early this morning.”_

“Anything stolen?” James asked with a chuckle, getting a stern look from Edward.

_”We don’t know, we can’t get in right now. The police are trying to find whatever evidence they can, they think they might be able to track down who did it.”_

Edward spoke up. “You’re coming to our house, pronto.”

_”Edward, we couldn’t-”_

“Yes, you can. You both need a place to stay, and you shouldn’t have to pay for a hotel. We have a perfectly good guest room, it’s yours for however long you need it. Now get your butts over here.”

-

“Still no word about your apartment?” James asked Gordon as they were busy cooking dinner.

“Not yet,” Gordon sighed as he peeled some potatoes, “I should get more information in the morning, though.”

James hummed. He pulled a roast out of the oven and set it on the counter. “I’m sorry you guys are stuck here, I’m sure Henry was looking forward to going back to your place.”

“I don’t think he minds being here,” Gordon chuckled. They both looked into the living room where Henry and Edward both sat on the couch, with Henry holding Felix and playing with his hair. He said something they couldn’t hear to Edward, who laughed and smiled down at Felix.

“So,” James turned his attention back to Gordon, “remember back at the hospital when Henry said he wanted children?”

Gordon’s pressed his lips into a firm line. “Yes, I remember…”

James smirked, “What are your thoughts on that?”

“My thoughts?”

“Yeah, what do you think about that?”

Gordon thought silently for a moment.

James continued, “Seems like that’s going to be a problem eventually, considering you hate kids.”

Gordon scoffed, “I don’t hate kids, I’m just not good with them.”

“Dude, it’s okay to hate kids,” James said with a chuckle, “They’re assholes. Felix isn’t even a month old and he’s already being an asshole.”

“Ah, already taking after his father then.”

James rolled his eyes. “Anyways, what are you going to say when Henry comes to you and says _‘Gordon, please, can we have some babies? I only want ten, can’t we just have a few? Please?’_ ” James said, putting on an exaggerated New Jersey accent.

“Okay, that’s not even close to what Henry sounds like. And he’s not going to ask me about children anytime soon. We don’t talk about those things.”

James cocked an eyebrow, “Really? I think you should. You’re going to have to talk about these things eventually.” He looked back at Edward and Henry, who were still giggling over Felix. “The sooner the better, I think.”

Gordon felt a warm feeling spread through him seeing Henry so happy. He didn’t want to admit it, but he knew James was right. Henry was going to ask him about children eventually. Gordon dreaded the thought, knowing he would only let Henry down with his answer. Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of thoughts Gordon had that would disappoint Henry if he knew.

James gave Gordon an apologetic look. “Sorry to pop your bubble like this, I just…” he lowered his voice, “I think you should talk to Henry about more serious matters. You of all people should know the importance of talking things over before making decisions.”

Gordon tensed. He didn’t need to be reminded. “How did you talk to Edward about that stuff?”

“Well,” James mused, “to be honest, Edward usually approached me about it. He’d just ask me, straight to the point. I’d tell him my thoughts and he’d tell me his, that’s how we learned more about each other, and how we made decisions.”

“You make it sound easy,” Gordon scoffed.

“Hey, I’m with you on this. I think I’ve approached Edward, I don’t know, once? You want to know how to talk to Henry about this shit, ask Edward. He knows more than I do.”

-

After dinner, Henry volunteered to take Felix and put him to sleep. Thomas asked Edward for help with his homework, but James offered to help him instead, giving Gordon a wink. This was his chance.

Gordon followed Edward into the kitchen and began helping him clean the dishes. After a few minutes of small talk, Gordon cleared his throat hesitantly. “So, um,” he said nervously, “I need some, uh, advice from you, regarding Henry.”

“Oh?” Edward said, amused. “What’s that?”

Gordon took a deep breath, “I know there are certain… topics, I need to discuss with him, but I don’t exactly know how… I don’t want to disappoint him, but I know we can’t avoid them forever.”

“You’re making this too complicated,” Edward chuckled, “I’m sure he won’t be disappointed. You may not agree on everything, but it’s much better to talk about these things so you both know what the other’s thoughts are.”

“I guess…” Gordon mumbled.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what do you need to talk about? Maybe I can help you think of what to say.”

“Well, I suspect Henry has children on his mind, especially now that he’s going to be around a baby a lot more, and there’s other things too…” Gordon felt his cheeks turning red, “I’ve already asked him if he wants to move in with me, and he said no, but now that he doesn’t have his own place, and given the break-in at my apartment, I was thinking about finding a new place… for the both of us.”

Edward gave Gordon a sympathetic look. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he said, “if Henry’s already said no, I don’t think-”

“But there’s more,” Gordon cut in, “I want to get a house, like you guys have. Henry’s always wanted dogs, so if we have a house we can have as many dogs as Henry wants. Plus, a house can have a better security system, so I know Henry will be safe, and I know he wants kids someday, so-”

“Gordon, is this really what you want?”

“Of course it is.”

Edward sighed, “I’m going to be honest with you, this sounds to me like you’re scrambling to give Henry everything he wants because you’re scared he’s going to leave you again. He rejected your offer to live together, so now you’re trying to give him a better offer in hopes that it’ll win him over and he’ll say yes. Do you want dogs? Do you want _kids_?”

Gordon thought for a moment. “Yes.”

“Are you saying that because you know it’s what Henry wants?”

“...”

“I know you think bending over backwards for Henry is what’s best, but I promise you that he’d much rather you do your own thing. He doesn’t like feeling helpless, like he needs to be protected and doted on, and what you’ve told me is just about the worst thing you could do. A big house with a security system might be safe, but he doesn’t want that to be pushed on him. If he thinks he needs a security system, he’ll go and get one. If he doesn’t think he needs one, he won’t want one forced on him. Do you follow me?”

Gordon nodded.

Edward smiled sympathetically, “You care about him a lot, and I think that’s very admirable. But what Henry needs most right now is to feel free and independent. He doesn’t need you, he _wants_ you. You should be happy about that, he’s with you because he wants to be with you, not because he’s dependent on you.”

Hearing this filled Gordon with relief. “Thank you, that helps.”

“Hold on a second, I’m not done,” Edward smirked. “You still should talk to Henry about some things. The house, the dogs, the children, all that stuff. He won’t be put off if you just bring them up as hypotheticals. Start off small, and ask him what he thinks.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ask him when he thinks he’d like to move in with you. Maybe that will lead to a discussion about where your relationship is heading.”

Gordon’s heart sunk, “But that would mean-”

Edward chuckled, “Yes, you’ll have to talk about getting married.”

Alarms went off in Gordon’s mind. “I can’t do that to him, I don’t want him to feel like I’m pressuring him-”

“You won’t be pressuring him,” Edward reassured, “I promise. Talking about it isn’t the same as asking him.”

Gordon didn’t say anything.

Edward continued, “I can tell you’re afraid of scaring him off, but trust me, not talking about this stuff is a lot worse. That can lead to problems later on, and it becomes harder to talk about the longer you wait. Why don’t you talk about it with him tonight?”

“Tonight?” Gordon sputtered, “Why?”

Edward laughed, “Why not? You might as well get the conversation started now, while it’s fresh on your mind. Plus, he’s in a good mood.”

“I have Felix to thank for that,” Gordon chuckled.

“Well, I made him, so you have me to thank as well,” Edward said proudly, “Talk to him tonight. I think things will work out just fine.”

-

After taking the evening to process what Edward had told him, Gordon decided to follow his advice and talk to Henry, starting with talking about the possibility of getting a house and hoping the conversation doesn’t escalate into talking about anything… more serious. Gordon couldn’t bring himself to even think about it, the thoughts filling him with anxiety.

When Henry settled into bed beside him, Gordon felt his heart rate increase sharply. _Guess this is it…_ “Um, if you’re not too tired, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Sure,” Henry smiled, sitting up and leaning against the headboard, “What is it?”

 _Oh god, why is this so hard?_ “So, uh, you know how we’re essentially homeless?” _Fuck, I already fucked it up…_

Henry chuckled nervously, “Yeah, I know.”

“Well, I was thinking, and…” Gordon paused, trying to form coherent thoughts.

“...and?”

“I think now would be a good time to buy a house,” Gordon took a deep breath looking down at his lap, unable to look at Henry for fear of seeing the disappointment on his face, “for the two of us.” Gordon braced himself for Henry’s response.

“Okay!”

Gordon blinked, looking back up at Henry. His face looked bright, not an ounce of disdain was visible to Gordon. “Really?”

“Of course,” Henry giggled.

“But, when I asked you to come live with me-”

“Oh, I know I already said no, but now seems like a good time. It’s about time you upgrade to a bigger place, and there’s no sense in being in a house all by yourself.”

It was too easy. Gordon eyed Henry suspiciously, “Are you sure about this?”

“Of course I am, I wouldn’t agree if I wasn’t certain about it.” Henry took Gordon’s hand in his own, lacing their fingers together. He looked into Gordon’s eyes reassuringly, “I know you’re nervous about this, but I’m totally on board. Really.”

“Well,” Gordon chuckled, “that was an easier conversation than I thought it would be.”

Henry laughed, snuggling closer and leaning his head on Gordon’s shoulder. “Think about it, if we have a big enough house, we can have some dogs to keep us company and guard the place while we’re gone.”

Gordon chuckled, “I knew you’d bringing up getting dogs. Yes, we’ll have to look into getting one soon, after we move in.”

Henry continued, “And with a house, we’ll be safer. We could, I don’t know, have some kind of security system installed…”

“...uh huh,” Gordon said suspiciously.

“And we could, uh…” Henry trailed off when he saw Gordon giving him a strange look. “Fine, you got me. I heard you talking to Edward.”

Gordon groaned, “God damn it.”

“I’m sorry! Your voice just carried so well through the house and when I heard some of what you said I got worried so I listened in and-”

“Worried?” Gordon said, puzzled, “What made you worried?”

Henry traced his finger up and down Gordon’s arm absentmindedly, “Well, I heard you asking Edward how to talk to me about serious things, and how you didn’t want to disappoint me, and I thought… I thought maybe you were thinking about breaking things off with me.”

Gordon’s expression softened, “Oh, Henry…”

“Well, I know I let you down when I told you living together was a bad idea, so I didn’t know if maybe I had made you think things between us were going south. I wouldn’t blame you. Taking things slow sucks.”

“I can’t say I disagree.”

“When I heard you talking to Edward, at first I was afraid you were thinking about ending things between us, and that made me realize that I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I think… I think I’m ready for this. Living with you again, I mean.”

Gordon gave Henry a gentle kiss on the forehead. “I’m more than ready for this.”


	11. Update/Author's Note

I told myself I'd never do this...

And yet... 

Here I am... 

Posting an author's note as a chapter... 

_Hgnhghnggh......._

So to make a long story short, this fic is now on hiatus until further notice. No, I will not abandon it. I've invested too much time and effort into this story to up and leave without wrapping things up. I will continue writing this, but it's going to be a little while.

For those interested in why, the reason is that a lot of this story's plot is based on my personal experiences. Henry and Gordon's relationship was sort of based on me and my partner at the time. When Gordon and Henry broke up, that was inspired by my own breakup, as well as when they got back together. Now, I've broken up with my partner for good this time, but that's not the direction I want Gordon and Henry to go in this story, so writing about their now happy relationship and their resolved problems would be painful for me because I'd be writing what I wanted for my ex and I. Writing about Gordon and Henry's relationship right now is like going through old photographs: it makes me super emotional, thinking about what could have been, so I need to wait until I've healed and moved on. I'm trying to recover as quickly as possible, and if I'm essentially fantasizing about what we could have had, even for writing purposes, that wouldn't be healthy for me right now.

Also, my parents are moving from the house they've lived in since I was a baby. This is a big deal for all of us, since 1) my parents were pretty much forced to move (I'm not even going to bother explaining why... it all involves family drama and believe me we do _not_ have time to get into all of that) and 2) I've never experienced moving before. Thankfully, I'm 20 years old and pretty much on my own so the move doesn't impact me all that much, but it's still hard to handle. When I first learned about the move I took it pretty well, which was a surprise to my parents and myself since I'm an extremely sentimental person who doesn't deal with change well. I'm talking, like, Gordon in 'Forever And Ever' levels of doesn't-take-change-well. So at first I was excited about it, and I even incorporated moving into this story. However, recently some of the more negative emotions have bubbled up, now that I'm faced with the reality of what's happening. In less than a month, I'll never set foot in the house I've called home for my entire life. That's an incredibly yucky feeling. Writing about moving isn't fun anymore, and seeing as that's about to be a major plot point soon, I can't bring myself to write about it in anything but a bitter, sad tone. Same as with Gordon and Henry's relationship. As much as I hate acknowledging this, I don't have the real life inspiration that motivated me to write about these two specific things.

That being said, I know I'm going to be fine sooner or later. Taking a break from writing this fic is supposed to help speed up that process. Once I'm in the right mindset to write about the things that are painful for me now, I will happily come back and finish this. I'm super attached to this fic, it holds a special place in my heart. This is my first multi-chapter, multi-series fic. I've never felt more inspired by any media, any fandom, like I've been inspired by this one. You guys are all wonderful, seriously. Without the people who read this story, whether they just read, read and gave kudos, left a comment, whatever they did made me feel so appreciated, and made the effort I put into writing worth it. I can never thank you all enough. I hope I'm not disappointing anyone by taking this break, I really do feel it's for the better. I could always power through and continue writing this fic, but I know if I do that it's just going to be... off. It's hard to write something happy and positive when your heart's just not there.

I'm sure some of you are seeing me pump out chapters of my new fic, 'It Could Be You', and you're probably thinking, "Well golly gee, Shiny, seems to me like you can write after all!" You're correct. I can, indeed, write. I can write _that_ story. _This story in particular_ is what I'm struggling with. Nothing in ICBY is inspired by anything that's causing me pain right now, and I did that on purpose. I wanted to keep writing, so I picked a topic that's so separated from my reality that it's possible for me to think about the story and plan it out without making myself sad or stressed. That fic is an escape for me. _This_ fic requires me to think about and draw inspiration from several things that I'm trying not to think about too much. So, I'm not on a hiatus with all writing, just this specific story.

Anyone still with me at this point, sorry for the essay, and sorry to get your hopes up for an update. I debated with myself for a few days whether I should say anything, but I figured saying something would be better than saying nothing. I didn't want anyone to think I had just abandoned this fic, especially when they see me working on other projects. I hope you guys understand.

One last note... the one good thing to come of this hiatus is that I'm hoping to knock out some requests I received a while ago! Hooray! Expect to see some of those published in 'Shiny's Smut Collection' soon, if all goes well.


End file.
